Instagram Hides '#Democrats' Search Results, "We Are Working to Resolve It," Says Meta
Meta has announced it is urgently addressing a technical issue on Instagram that prevents users from viewing results when searching for the hashtags “#Democrat” or “#Democrats.” Instead, users are met with a “results hidden” message, sparking accusations of political bias. The development which emerged on social media a day after Meta founder and billionaire Mark Zuckerberg attended the inauguration of US President Donald Trump has ignited concerns over the neutrality of social media platforms. Meta owns social media and messaging platforms like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
Social media users have criticised the timing of the glitch, alleging it reflects partisan bias.
Social media expert Matt Navarra, however, told BBC that the problem is likely technical, though he admitted it remains “embarrassing” for Instagram. “In a hyper-partisan environment, even unintentional errors like this can escalate into accusations of partisanship,” Navarra said. “If these issues are not resolved quickly, they risk fuelling conspiracy theories and damaging Meta’s reputation.”
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Searches for “#Democrat” or “#Democrats” yield no results, while the hashtag “#Republican” displays over 3.3 million posts. Searching for “Democrats” without the hashtag leads to a message stating, “We’ve hidden these results,” and citing “sensitive content” as the reason. Searches for “Republicans” also produce limited results compared to “#Republican.”
Instagram Hides ‘#Democrats’ Search Results, “We Are Working to Resolve It,” Says Meta
Meta responded to BBC by saying that the tech giant is working quickly to resolve the issue. “We’re aware of an error affecting hashtags across the political spectrum and are working quickly to resolve it,” Meta told BBC.
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Zuckerberg’s recent interactions with President Trump have added fuel to the controversy. The Meta CEO attended Trump’s inauguration and visited the former president at Mar-a-Lago in November. Additionally, Meta announced policy changes earlier this year, with Zuckerberg citing a “cultural tipping point” brought by Trump’s re-election. Joel Kaplan, a Republican, was recently appointed as Meta’s global affairs chief, replacing Sir Nick Clegg.
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