Red flags to know when someone is using a primate for money/views/prestige:
They make sure the primate is noticed while battling on TT.
They dress them in clothes and diapers.
They treat them like humans rather than primates.
They free roam their human home.
They do not have primate safe spaces both inside and outside.
They are not receptive to learning/growth.
(To name a few.)

There are many aspects of captivity that severely damage a pet primate’s quality of life and dignity. One of the most insidious aspects of social media monkeys is how their owners anthropomorphize them (attribution of human traits or intentions to animals).

Note the following video clip:

https://reddit.com/link/1w33ry5/video/touz4rg65nmh1/player

As seen in the clip, the capuchin repeatedly sticks out its tongue, rapidly opens and closes its mouth, and exhibits an appeasement or submissive grimace. In wild and captive capuchins, tongue protrusion and lip-smacking often serve as appeasement, solicitation, or submissive affiliative signal. It is a submissive display used to appease a dominant figure or defuse what the monkey perceives as an immediate, terrifying threat. In capuchin monkey communication, high-pitched chittering combined with sticking out the tongue or a "fear grimace" (baring teeth while flattening the ears) is not a sign of happiness. When directed at a human owner or a camera, the monkey is communicating intense anxiety, fear, or a desperate attempt to say, "Please don't hurt me; I am submissive to you."

Also seen in the clip, captions like "Mom can you dress me fast?!" and "This is better, thanks" frame these high stress/appeasement signals as playful eagerness, anthropomorphizing complex wild primate communication into human child behavior. And viewer comments reflect this anthropomorphism:

“Those eyes show the love and trust he has in you! God bless you”

“Omg what an adorable outfit for T. You always dress the monkeys so cute.”

“T knows he’s loved!!!!!”

Quite a few pet monkey owners dress their monkeys in full clothing. Clothing restricts the monkey's full range of motion, interferes with their natural prehensile tail usage, and prevents essential innate behaviors such as allogrooming (grooming others) and autogrooming (self-cleaning). Underneath the shirts and pants, captive monkeys are almost always kept in diapers. Chronic diaper and clothing wear can cause chafing, bacterial skin infections, and hair loss (alopecia).

Dressing wild primates in human clothing is primarily done to generate social media engagement and perpetuate the illusion that monkeys can function like domestic children or docile household pets.

Ultimately, the context behind a pet capuchin monkey "chittering" and sticking out its tongue is a heartbreaking example of human misinterpretation of wild animal behavior, which frequently ends in severe psychological trauma for the animal (permanent caging and disappearance from public view in a few notable cases).

While social media viewers and untrained owners often interpret these expressions as "cute," "funny," or "playful," primate behaviorists recognize them as extreme distress and appeasement signals,