The story behind the 'one tree for every pet picture’ trend on Instagram In a trend that began on Monday, more than four million Instagram users shared photos of their pets along with a sticker that said a tree would be planted for each one. Following confusion about the original source, an account called Plant A Tree Co took responsibility, saying it began as a "fun tree planting campaign," but that it "immediately realized the post would grow too big and that we didn't have the resources to plant that many trees, so we deleted it 10 minutes later." Plant A Tree Co says it is now taking part in a fundraiser so it can "actually plant four million trees." Photo via @RossalynWarren

 

Henry Jones

@hthjones

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4h

Instagram is working to make one of its features clearer after millions of people appeared to be misled by a viral trend claiming a tree would be planted for every pet photo they shared on the platform. My piece for

@PA

standard.co.uk

‘One tree for every pet picture’ trend appears to mislead millions on Instagram

Millions of people joined the trend, posting their pet images on the platform with the caption ‘We’ll plant one tree for every pet picture’.

Henry Jones

@hthjones

A

@Meta

spokesperson told PA: "The ‘We’ll plant one tree for every pet picture’ trend shows the power of the Instagram community to raise awareness on important topics." Plant A Tree Co said it quickly realised it “does not have the resources” to fulfil the promise.