2025-01-07 21:08:08| Engadget
Metas Instagram has been blocking LGBTQ-related hashtags for months, according to reporting by User Mag. This was done under the companys sensitive content policy as an attempt to restrict sexually suggestive content. The blocked hashtags included stuff like #lesbian, #gay, #bisexualpride, #transwomen and dozens more. Those hashtags dont seem that sexually suggestive to me but, hey, what do I know.
The terms were hidden from both search and discovery for any users who had their sensitive content filter turned on. Teenage users have that filter turned on by default. When teens attempted to search these terms, they were directed to a blank page and a prompt from Meta to review the companys sensitive content restrictions that hide sexually explicit posts.
User Mags reporting caused Meta to reverse course on these restrictions, after having been in place for months. The company called it a simple mistake and said that its important to us that all communities feel safe and welcome on Meta apps, and we do not consider LGBTQ+ terms to be sensitive under our policies.
The restrictions occurred after the company started hiding topics from teens as part of a larger youth and well-being privacy update. This was advertised as an effort to keep kids away from content that promoted self-harm. Its worth noting that heterosexual content, even stuff that showed couples engaged in romantic activities, werent restricted in any way, according to User Mag.
A responsible and inclusive company would not build an algorithm that classifies some LGBTQ hashtags as sensitive content, hiding helpful and age-appropriate content from young people by default, a spokesperson for GLAAD said. LGBTQ creators have long suffered under Instagrams content policies, often experiencing shadow bans and having their content labeled as non-recommendable.
While Meta says it was all a big misunderstanding, promising to get to the bottom of things, this is only one example of the company throwing marginalized communities under the bus. The company just changed its Hateful Content policy, adding language that seemingly allows folks to brazenly attack gay and trans people. The company says that it's now fine to post allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality. It's worth noting that the word "transgenderism" has long been used by bad actors to purposely misrepresent trans identities as an ideology.
This is part of a larger effort by Meta to become more like the notoriously-thriving social media empire X. Meta just got rid of its fact checkers, in favor of community guidelines, and removed a mention in its Hateful Conduct policy that suggested online rhetoric could promote offline violence.
WATCH: Were gonna get rid of fact-checkersIn what looks almost like a hostage video, Zuckerberg bends the knee to Trump entirely doing away with Facebook fact-checkers and moving the process to Texas under the guise of protecting free expression. pic.twitter.com/Ox0jeqBDBZ The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) January 7, 2025
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also been cozying up to Donald Trump. Hes been busy pumping money into Trumps inauguration fund, flying down to Mar-a-Lago for chats, replacing Metas longtime policy chief Nick Clegg with a former George W. Bush aide and appointing UFC CEO (and Trump booster) Dana White to the companys board.
Zuckerberg went as far as to explicitly indicate that many of the above changes were made because Donald Trump won the presidential election, calling it a cultural tipping point. He also called third-party fact checkers too politically biased and suggested that many of Europes laws against hate speech promoted censorship and make it difficult to build anything innovative there. Remember when he was going to fight Elon Musk? It looks like Zuckerberg just lost via submission to our new First Buddy without ever entering the ring.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/instagram-blocked-lgbtq-hashtags-and-treated-them-as-sexually-suggestive-content-200808209.html?src=rss
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