Abdul El-Sayed’s bizarre Instagram admission… and the darker warning for teenagers

Abdul El-Sayed, who has just secured Michigan's Democratic Senate nomination, has attracted attention over a resurfaced video in which he claimed his Instagram feed was dominated by OnlyFans content because the platform's algorithm had identified him as a middle-aged man. The clip, from a June interview with The Lever, was circulated by the RNC Research account on election day, and El-Sayed used it to argue that such algorithms push adult content on users, including teenagers, without their choosing it.

In the interview, El-Sayed said roughly one in three videos on his "For You" page featured an OnlyFans model, attributing this to Instagram profiling him as "a 40-something-year-old man", and warned that 14-year-olds could be served similar content even faster. He stressed his concern was with algorithmic targeting rather than the legality of the content itself. The remarks emerged as El-Sayed narrowly beat Representative Haley Stevens for the Democratic nomination, winning 48.5% to 47.5% with 99% of votes counted, a result confirmed by the Associated Press. He will now face Republican Mike Rogers, who was endorsed early by Donald Trump; Trump has since branded El-Sayed a "Communist loser" while welcoming his nomination as good news for Republicans.