Meta moves to fix problem of Instagram hiding ‘Democrat’ search results

Meta’s Instagram is coming under fire for an issue displaying results when users of the social media app search for ‘Democrat.’

Searches for the terms ‘Democrat’ or ‘Democrats’ in Instagram comes up with a measure reading: “We’ve hidden these results. Results for the term you’ve searched for may contain sensitive content.”

In comparison, the hashtag ‘Republican’ returns 3.3 million posts on the social media platform, without any content warning flags or issues displaying content. You can still find ‘Democrat’ posts by clicking on a hashtag, with the issue seemingly only affecting direct searches.

However, it’s worth noting that similar issues are reported while searching for ‘Republicans,’ suggesting the problem is tech-based, rather than a sign of political bias.

Meta has confirmed it’s working on a solution for the issue, after social media users nonetheless accused the company of political bias, particularly as the issue appears to have started after Republican President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday. Meta owner Mark Zuckerberg attended the inauguration.

This comes after the company has been accused by some of costing up to President Trump even before he returned to the White House. Steps like eliminating fact-checking tools echo moves made by Elon Musk, who was recently given a position on Mr Trump’s administration.

While speaking to the BBC, social media expert Matt Navarra explained that it’s most likely a technical problem but is nonetheless “embarrassing” for Instagram and Meta as a whole, especially due to the timing.

“In a hyper-partisan environment, even unintentional errors like this can escalate into accusations of partisanship,” he said. “If these issues are not resolved quickly they risk fuelling conspiracy theories and damaging Meta’s reputation.”

“We’re aware of an error affecting hashtags across the political spectrum and we are working quickly to resolve it”, Meta told press in a statement.

The issue appears to be affecting users around the world, not just in the US, with Instagrammers in the UK also reporting issues while searching ‘Democrat’ or ‘Republicans.’

Featured image: Flickr, licensed under PDM 1.0

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