Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, tweeted on Sunday about a feature on the platform that imitates TikTok's iconic "Swipe up for more videos" functionality.

The feature was released in October, but Musk's promotion of it brought in a ton of new users. A steady stream of horrific videos, including those depicting gun violence, police brutality, physical altercations, and vaccination disinformation, were claimed to have shocked many users as they scrolled through the feed.  

The videos highlight the disparities between Twitter, which has encouraged a stew of popular news events and has scaled back on control under Musk, and TikTok-- renowned for offering lighthearted material.

It appears that several of the frightening videos were uploaded during the previous two days. Millions of users saw some of the original posts on their timelines less than 24 hours after they were initially uploaded.

In a subsequent tweet on Sunday, Musk indicated that he was aware of the possibility of graphic films by stating that some of them would be "quite edgy".

Some of the videos are indeed quite edgy

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 25, 2023

One of these videos even appeared to show a police officer killing a person. 

After viewing Musk's tweet, some users tried out the function and expressed their shock at finding such violent content while swiping up on videos.

The disturbing material also draws attention to a potential flaw in Twitter's algorithm. 

It is worth noting that posting graphic content violates Twitter’s own rules, most notably the depiction of violence, such as physical fights and animal torture.

The promotion of violent videos on Twitter highlights the difficulty the site has had in controlling material since Elon Musk took control of it last year. 

Before Musk finalized his control of the firm, Twitter introduced its swipe-up functionality in October 2022. However, Musk made the function known on Sunday, which led some users to wonder if it was a brand-new feature. 

Following TikTok's success, social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram introduced the functionality that lets viewers scroll continuously across videos. The response from users on these sites has been conflicted.