Instagram blocked searches for #democrats and different political hashtags

Instagram blocked searches associated to quite a lot of political hashtags, together with #democrats, #democrat, #jan6th, #republicans and quite a lot of different phrases Tuesday. Customers who looked for these hashtags have been as an alternative greeted with a discover that “we’ve hidden these outcomes” as a result of they “might comprise delicate content material.”

It’s not clear precisely what number of search phrases have been affected however customers on Reddit reported that dozens of tags have been unsearchable. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone blamed an unspecified “difficulty” in a post on Threads and stated the corporate was engaged on a repair.

The timing, simply days after Mark Zuckerberg took a front-row seat at President Donald Trump’s inauguration, understandably prompted hypothesis that the “difficulty” was politically motivated. Zuckerberg just lately moved to finish Meta’s fact-checking programs, roll again content moderation standards that prohibited dehumanizing language and slurs focusing on immigrants and LGBTQ folks. The corporate additionally internally shuttered its corporate diversity programs. Stone, nevertheless, stated the difficulty affected “quite a lot of totally different hashtags on Instagram – not simply these on the left.”

Certainly, there appeared to be some inconsistency in what was blocked. #Democrat, #democrats and #republicans have been reportedly affected, however #republican was viewable. Customers reported that #structure, #johnoliver and #queer have been additionally unviewable. Meta now appears to have addressed many of the hashtags in query, although the corporate hasn’t defined what prompted the “difficulty.”

This, notably, is not the primary time Instagram has inexplicably blocked searches for hashtags. Meta blocked hashtags associated to LGBTQ content material and labeled it as “delicate content material” for months. The corporate stated earlier this yr that was an error, noting that “we don’t think about LGBTQ+ phrases to be delicate underneath our insurance policies.” In 2020, Instagram briefly prevented customers from sharing posts with the hashtag #blacklivesmatter. The corporate stated it was a mistake and blamed its spam detection options.