"Am I (25M) wrong for not thinking I cheated when my girlfriend (24F) thinks I did?"

For context: Me and my girlfriend have been dating for 1.5 years and have argued with each other maybe about 3 times, so we generally get along very well. We also both got cheated on in our past relationship so we made it very clear that we would be honest, open and as transparent as we can while communicating; which we were very good at and never ran into an issue with.

So what happened:

We were in bed watching tiktoks together on my phone. We probably scrolled past a hundred videos before we got to a "thirst trap" of a girl. My gf got upset, and I thought she was joking at first until I realized that she was genuinely upset.

I tried to talk to her and give her reassurance that it's just algorithm based and probably showed up on my "For you page", for an unknown reason (For those unfamiliar - just a feed of videos based on a user's interests, location, gender, etc.). I genuinely do not view this type of content and just scroll past it when I come upon them.

Then after some processing, she wanted to see my Instagram app so I opened it up and showed her, because I had nothing to hide. She went to the explore page and it was just loaded with pictures of half dressed girls and maybe one or two of my other personal interests.

This shocked both of us and she immediately started packing her things and wanted to leave. She claimed that I am emotionally cheating because she believes that those showed up because I am clicking on those types of photos/videos, checking the profiles out, and/or liking them.

I immediately explained to her that I have no idea why they would all be there, I don't even browse the explore page on instagram nor do I even check the app that frequently. I spend about 20 minutes a day on instagram just looking at my friends' stories/posts once or twice a day and thats about it.

I realized as I was trying to explain it to her, that she was taking everything I was saying as a load of BS, which is understandable. She said I emotionally cheated on her and now I have been ignored for the past two days and I am supposed to go to her house and talk to her tonight.

I, on the other hand, do not think I emotionally cheated because I wasn't even looking at them in the first place, nor was I ever emotionally driven (?) to look at that type of content. And even if I was looking at it, why would I be emotionally invested in a random Instagram influencer hundreds or thousands of miles away with hundreds of thousands of followers?

So in summary: She thinks I emotionally cheated on her for having lewd content of other girls on my "curated" feeds on social media, whereas I honestly did not partake or look at that type of content, but everything I say to her to explain this is just taken in as a lie/excuse. Am I wrong here?

What do you think? AITA? This is what top commenters had to say:

thebabes2 said:

Reasonable partners have discussions about boundaries and expectations in a relationship. They don't make wild accusations and throw tantrums. You didn't cheat. You weren't engaging in contact or relationships with anyone, you just got pegged by the algorithm and it fed you content.

I'm a 41 year old woman, I don't use social media much but I turned on my IG one day and it was FILLED with really random, strange "thirst" videos. All of my followed pages are personal friends or recipe blogs, so it was a mystery. Two days later it was back to recipes again. Your girl is a drama queen and immature.

OldKing7199 said:

Yes those instagram algorithms are insane. I never use insta unless my mother sends me something funny or whatever weird/funny/craft video she sends with a horrible voice over and gets me to like it. When I press back, what do I see? NSFW images. Always happens, maybe it the default? Luckily my spouse would never think I'm cheating based on insta algorithms...

Dark-Haven-Witch said:

This is what you do—tonight, when you go over, check HER Instagram. Ask for her phone and see what she does.

tensinahnd said:

I scrolled back up expecting to see teenagers age. 24 is too old to be acting like this. Run away.

UPDATE:

First of all, thank you for all the comments! It really helped provide me with outside perspective because I HATE spilling personal relationship details/troubles with anyone I know. I mentioned a couple good points mentioned here and here is how it went:

Went and talked to her, she did admit that she may have blown it out of proportion. But she was still upset about it, she said that, to her, using the explore page to look at girls was the same as being on a dating app and looking at girls - I immediately shut it down and called her out for being crazy for thinking that.

She said that she knows it's not the same but her mind keeps framing it like it is because I am giving those instagram girls my attention, as if I am interested in them. Her stance on the matter didn't change much, but she did soften up after I explained that it really is not that deep.

She is still upset, and I compromised with her by saying that I will be more diligent about clearing out my feeds from that type of content. We ended up "resolving" it for now, but it will take some time to completely resolve. What she doesn't know, is that I am fully prepared to end everything and cut ties if she ever acts irrational and unreasonable about something like this.

P.S: Also for those who say she is projecting/lashing out because she is cheating, she isn't. I know this for a fact, she doesn't go out and hates talking to strangers, and does not have many friends, let alone any male friends.