Instagram blocks searches for #democrats and other political hashtags.

Instagram has restricted searches for several political hashtags, such as #democrats, #democrat, #jan6th, and #republicans, among others, last Tuesday. Users attempting to access these terms encountered a notice stating that “we have hidden these results” because they "may contain sensitive content." Although the exact number of affected hashtags has not been specified, users on Reddit reported that dozens of them were inaccessible.

A Meta spokesperson, Andy Stone, attributed the situation to an unspecified “issue” and assured that the company is working on a solution. This incident has sparked speculation about potential political bias, especially following Mark Zuckerberg's recent appearance at President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Furthermore, Zuckerberg has decided to end Meta's fact-checking programs and has relaxed content moderation rules that previously prohibited the use of dehumanizing language and derogatory terms towards immigrants and LGBTQ individuals. Additionally, the company has internally shut down its corporate diversity programs.

Stone also mentioned that the issue affected “a range of different hashtags on Instagram, not just those from the political left.” In fact, an inconsistency was observed among the blocked hashtags; while #Democrat, #democrats, and #republicans were disabled, #republican remained accessible. Users also reported that terms like #constitution, #johnoliver, and #queer were similarly hidden. Although Meta appears to have resolved most of the hashtags in question, the company has not provided clarifications regarding the origin of the “issue.”

It is worth noting that this is not the first time Instagram has inexplicably restricted searches for certain hashtags. The platform had previously blocked terms related to LGBTQ content, labeling them as "sensitive content," for several months, although they later acknowledged that this was a mistake and stated that "we do not consider LGBTQ+ terms to be sensitive according to our policies." In 2020, Instagram also briefly prevented users from sharing posts with the hashtag #blacklivesmatter, a mistake that, according to the company, was caused by its spam detection features.