Instagram has banned LGBTQ hashtags and treated them as ‘sexually suggestive content’

Meta’s Instagram has been banning LGBTQ-related hashtags for months, According to reports from User mag. This was done under the company’s “Sensitive Content” policy as an attempt to restrict “sexually suggestive content.” Banned hashtags included things like #lesbian, #gay, #bisexualpride, #transwomen, and dozens more. These tags don’t seem sexually suggestive to me, but what do I know.

Terms are hidden from search and discovery for any user who has their sensitive content filter turned on. Teen users turn this filter on by default. When teens tried to search for these terms, they were directed to a blank page and prompted by Meta to review the company’s “sensitive content” restrictions that hide “sexually explicit” posts.

User mag The reports caused Meta to reverse course on these restrictions, after they had been in place for several months. The company called this a simple error, and said, “It is important to us that all communities feel safe and welcome in Meta apps, and we do not consider LGBTQ+ terms to be sensitive under our policies.”

The restrictions occurred after the company began hiding topics from teens as part of a larger campaign Youth & Wellbeing privacy update.. This was announced as an attempt to keep children away from content that promotes self-harm. It is worth noting that heterosexual content, even stuff that shows couples engaging in romantic activities, was not restricted in any way, according to User mag.

“A responsible, inclusive company would not build an algorithm that labels certain LGBTQ hashtags as ‘sensitive content,’ hiding useful, age-appropriate content from young people by default,” a GLAAD spokesperson said. LGBTQ creators have long suffered under Instagram’s content policies. You often encounter shadow bans and With their content label Marked as “not recommended”.

While Meta says the whole thing was just a big misunderstanding, and promises to get to the bottom of things, this is just one example of the company throwing marginalized communities under the bus. Company I just changed my “hate content” policy.adding language that apparently allows people to rudely attack LGBT people. The company says it’s now okay to post “allegations of mental illness or homosexuality when based on gender or sexual orientation, in light of political and religious discourse around transgenderism and homosexuality.” It is worth noting that the word “transgender” It has long been used by bad actors To intentionally distort transgender identities as an ideology.

This is part of a larger effort by Meta to become more like X’s thriving social media empire. Just dead I got rid of the fact checkersin favor of its community guidelines, and removed a reference in its hateful conduct policy that suggested online speech could “encourage offline violence.”

CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also been cozying up to Donald Trump. He’s been busy pumping money into Trump’s inauguration fund, Flying to Mar-a-Lago for talks, replacing longtime Meta policy chief Nick Clegg with a former aide to George W. Bush and naming the UFC CEO (and Trump supporter) Dana White is on the company’s board of directors.

Zuckerberg went so far as to explicitly suggest that many of the above changes were made because of Donald Trump’s presidential election win, calling it a “cultural turning point.” He also described third-party fact-checkers as “very politically biased” and noted that many European laws against hate speech encourage censorship and make it “difficult to build anything innovative out there.” Remember when He was going to fight Elon Musk? It looks like Zuckerberg just lost by giving in to our new number one friend without ever getting into the ring.