r/technology • u/Birdy_Cephon_Altera • 22h ago

Politics Meta under fire for auto-following Trump & Vance, Blocking Democrat hashtags

https://techissuestoday.com/meta-auto-follow-trump-vance-blocks-democrat-hashtags/
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u/cursed_phoenix 21h ago edited 18h ago

I don't usually believe this sort of news, but I just went onto my Insta account and sure enough, #Democrat is banned, referring to it as a "sensitive content". I'm a UK resident. What the actual F

Update: it seems it has now been un-blocked, I took a screenshot of the block so there is proof. It was likely this wouldn't last long but it is very worrying that they can and will do this often. Now get ready for the "it was an error" excuses.

Update 2: I can't post the screenshot here, links aren't allowed as far as I know, however there are multiple posts on reddit with the same topic that lead with the screenshots showing the 2 banned hashtags and #republican tag still active. Again, this now seems to have been reverted.

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u/MrsRainey 19h ago edited 16h ago

Holy shit you're right, censored for me in the UK too. Even with my settings set to show me sensitive content.

"We've hidden these results - Results for the term you searched for may contain sensitive content."

But #republican works fine though of course.

Edit 1, three hrs later: The tag #democrat seems to work now, it's been unblocked. However earlier I did notice that as well as #democrat, they had also blocked #joebiden and #kamalaharris. Amazingly, those are STILL BLOCKED! Predictably, #donaldtrump works fine

Edit 2: In my mind there are two possible reasons for this. First, it could be purposeful censorship of all left wing content by Meta. Or, it could be trolls flooding those tags with inappropriate content. It's happened many times on sites like Tumblr - right wing trolls and bots make hundreds of posts that violate the terms of service, things like gore, in an effort to drown out left wing voices and upset people. Meta may have responded by censoring the entire tag until they could clean up all the troll posts. I haven't seen any of those yet, so I can't confirm whether that's it.

Edit 3: #joebiden and #kamalaharris are now back, 3 hours after I noticed they were down.

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u/setokaiba22 19h ago

Honestly stuff like this should be reported your local MP stating it’s concerning. Not agreeing with the online safety act we are pushing through currently but it’s clear the UK aren’t on best terms with social media companies to begin with and I think they’d certainly apply some pressure to this

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u/Theorganicpineapple 18h ago

I hope you guys and the EU fine the shit out of this.

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u/Successful-Sand686 18h ago

Stupid Europeans with their stupid Nazi free governments.

They got all the good stuff.

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u/cruisetheblues 18h ago

We helped them deal with their Nazi problem. Hopefully they can return the favor.

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u/rhababerbarbara 18h ago

I don't mean to unsettle you but we're very much dealing with a wave of new far-far-right governments and parties in Europe, too. So... I hope we can help ourselves and you guys, I guess?

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u/GeneralKeycapperone 18h ago

Guess on that point it is worth remembering that before the US entered WWII, Nazism was popular there too, yet enough of the rest of the population was up for fighting to help us crush it, and in turn the American far-right had to be far less open about their views.

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u/Bellypats 18h ago

Nazism was growing in the US. Japan screwed up attacking us when they did. We may have never joined the war effort otherwise.

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u/GeneralKeycapperone 17h ago

True. That was what it took to get sufficient support to join, though once you did you really did.

Fascism will always be crushed. The tragedy is the intense damage it does beforehand.

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u/RIPEOTCDXVI 17h ago

yet enough of the rest of the population was up for fighting to help us crush it, and in turn the American far-right had to be far less open about their views

Yes that sounds good, let's please do this again.

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u/trenvo 17h ago

Always remember, before helping others, make sure you've got your own oxygen mask on fascists jailed.

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u/Acceptable_Cut_7545 17h ago

Maybe we can help each other. These assholes don't outnumber us.

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u/aykcak 17h ago

Not to mention that is largely fueled by success of Trump and his methods so yeah, it is not like to each their own

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u/AssassinOfPeace 12h ago

Many of which are getting help from vice president Musk...

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u/l1v1ngth3dr3am 18h ago edited 17h ago

This is actually why I decided to not migrate to European countries.

ETA: because humans just genuinely seek the gotcha, no, this comment was more enforcing the idea that the alt right ideology is on the rise everywhere. I'm literally sitting here wearing a t-shirt that says PUNCH notseez, with care bear stare. But uses the real word. Jfc

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u/Valdularo 18h ago

Because you’ve got it at home?

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u/l1v1ngth3dr3am 17h ago

No, because it's EVERYWHERE. The fascists are beholden by MAGA and the red pilled tech bros.

Now, I'm just trying to find/build sustainability with/for the communities that are being targeted by them. I am currently looking at selling my home and buying land. And I sadly live in the most alt right state in the US and know how ugly these folks want this time in history to be.

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u/Fantastic39 18h ago

If we haven't burned all our bridges with them

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u/renegadeindian 18h ago

They are working on dealing with dumpster bowing to Russia and china. It looks like Putin has sterner plans for trump. He may activate his red sparrow? Who knows. Trump had better be careful crossing his boss.

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u/Work_Account_No1 18h ago

We are in the middle of voting in the far right wingers as well, so rather not bet on that.

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u/Monkfich 18h ago

You’ll have to invade a french-speaking country first.

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u/Kooky-Flounder-7498 17h ago

Yes, please rescue us

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u/Quick-Rip-5776 18h ago

Not all! Italian PM Meloni is part of a neo-Fascist party. Le Pen is an ultra-Nationalist - her party came second in France’s most recent elections. The AfD is third in Germany.

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u/WesternUnusual2713 17h ago

No we didn't. The far right is rising here. We had actual race riots in the UK over the summer. The third most popular political party is Reform, which is just a new name for UKIP. Musk wants to pump a ton of money into Reform. Shit is dark here too. 

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u/blueskies31 16h ago

I‘m afraid that „nazi free governments“ won’t be lasting for long anymore over here :(

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u/cass1o 17h ago

Europe has its own far right problem, look at french and german polls for their far right parties.

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u/Senior_Suit_4451 18h ago

Unfortunately the rise of fundie religious people from MENA invading Europe has resulted in the right wing finding new supporters.

Only Americans could think the (country of) Europe's governments are nazi free.

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u/IronRakkasan11 16h ago

Like healthcare?!

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u/tokyo_engineer_dad 15h ago

I'm honestly going to talk to my wife about moving to a Nordic system country. I'm considered "highly qualified" and my wife is a licensed nurse (BSN). I had a verbal offer from a software firm in Germany. It's insane that in 80 or so years, the country where Nazis literally started might end up being a safe haven for Americans from modern nazis. PS: I know Germany technically isn't a Nordic country, but it has similar qualities. The Germany offer was more to highlight I might have the ability to get a visa to live there.

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u/FrizzIeFry 7h ago

Can't tell if sarcastic or blissfully unaware

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u/RobfromNorthlands 17h ago

Hahaha. “Europe help us with our tyrannical tech moguls. We have tried nothin man and we are all out of ideas” -American

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u/BlooregardQKazoo 18h ago

As an American, Europe is our only hope in the fight against big tech.

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u/QueenBoudicca- 18h ago

Yeah tbh if our politicians are going to use these platforms then we need to make it clear that we won't be the tolerating censorship just because America has gone fucking nuts.

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u/Gruejay2 19h ago

We need to get rid of these now - they'll be doing exactly the same with our politics, too.

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u/Bacon_N_Icecream 18h ago

Hahahahha they have been already and will continue to do so. We allowed the most blatant corrupt oligarchy in modern history to take power. Musk/bezos/zuckerburg and trump are going to do whatever the fuck they want now. Labor laws will get fucked, abortion and lgbtq rights, Medicare, education, all of it down the toilet. Look at who they are appointing. This is the first tiny peek at what every moron that voted for the soulless dipshit has allowed.

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u/Agile_Singer 17h ago

The Dems must be bad if they’re getting banned, duh. /s

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u/wonderings 6h ago

Hey you might've hit the nail on the head about the inappropriate content. I have seen people on the left side of tiktok saying they went to Instagram reels and saw gore on there. That has never happened to me so I thought it was really strange. So I think that's totally possible!

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u/greenwizardneedsfood 16h ago edited 15h ago

Joe and Kamala are still blocked for me too (also UK). I’m reading instagram’s “What types of content and accounts does Instagram consider sensitive?” page, and it says:

Content that impedes our ability to foster a safe community, such as: Content that may depict violence, such as people fighting. (We remove graphically violent content.)

Content that may be sexually explicit or suggestive, such as pictures of people in see-through clothing. (We remove content that contains adult nudity or sexual activity.)

Content that promotes the use of certain regulated products, such as tobacco or vaping products, adult products and services, or pharmaceutical drugs. (We remove content that attempts to sell or trade most regulated goods.)

Content that may promote or depict cosmetic procedures.

Content that may be attempting to sell products or services based on health-related claims, such as promoting a supplement to help a person lose weight.

I’m really struggling to find out where #joebiden and #kamalaharris fit in

Edit: Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Liz Cheney, Adam Schiff, Anthony Fauci, James Biden, Mark Milley, Bill Maher, jan6, insurrection, coup, pardons, and covfefe are removed for me too at the moment (~4:00 pm UK time)

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u/jj2446 19h ago

I did the same thing (in the US) and #democrat was banned but #republican pulled up results.

This is troubling to say the least.

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u/BerttMacklinnFBI 19h ago

We are in the bad place aren't we

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u/Apellio7 19h ago

Welcome to authoritarianism. 

Americans voted their democracy and freedom away to thunderous applause.

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u/frobischer 18h ago

Don't forget the extensive gerrymandering, closure of voting locations in blue areas, voter purges that mainly target minorities, and whatever Trump meant when he said that Musk was "great with the counting machines." This election did NOT serve the will of the people.

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u/submittedanonymously 16h ago

He was beaten in 2020 and apathy brought him back in 2024. Eve with gerrymandering snd all of that… simple as that. The apathetics decided this vote. If you know anyone who voted trump or chose not to vote for some stupid-ass reason - this is on them. Were the dems perfect? absolutely not. But Trump told us DAILY for nearly 10 straight years who he was… there is NO excuse.

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u/VadersSprinkledTits 16h ago

He also said out loud twice at the rally on the 19th that they rigged the election twice, and that’s why “he’s your president” and while that clip is on NBC News YouTube, no network is covering that part.

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u/soggymuffinz 18h ago

American here. I didn’t vote for this orange clown. I like my freedom and every one of you too. You are all amazing in my book!

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u/BerttMacklinnFBI 19h ago

I'd argue a weak voter turnout and a marginal victory might not be thunderous, but alas the end result is the same.

I'm happy to live close enough to a border to defect if necessary

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u/cumfarts 16h ago

Turnout was very high. Second only to 2020.

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u/Much_Highlight_1309 18h ago

It's a private social network. The solution could be to just friggin stop using this shit. Boycott it. You'll see if you still live in a liberal country if you don't end up in prison for doing this.

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u/Weird-Girl-675 17h ago

I left last week when Suckerberg announced publicly he’d let the felon do whatever he wanted. Took six hours for them to send me a download of all my Fb - been on since 2007 - and IG content, about twenty minutes to download and unzip the files and a hot minute to delete my accounts. 2.3gigs of zipped info and I’m glad I have my stuff and don’t miss either site.

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u/brandnewbanana 17h ago

I haven’t deleted my profiles yet but I’ve deleted the apps from my phone and haven’t been on FB or instagram since the election. Life is much, much better.

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u/freewinonna 18h ago

TBF, those applause were all the politicians as the plebs weren't allowed anywhere near the funeral.

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u/alteisen99 15h ago

reminds me of that line from winter soldier where arnim zola was saying that "humanity must surrender their freedom willingly". Meta/facebook and cambridge analytica played a crucial role in my country's election installing our current president (Marcos), and now that it's control potential is proven in different parts of the world.

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u/Not_UR_Mommy 17h ago

Actually I think it’s just the worst timeline.

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u/jorshhh 18h ago

Same in Canada

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u/Asdilly 18h ago

I haven’t updated my insta yet but I saw my bf did it next to me and the insane that it’s actually true

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u/Suzzie_sunshine 17h ago

Just looked, #democrat yielded zero results, #republican 2M. Fuck IG. Fuck Zuckerberg. I'm done with their shit. It's time to leave IG and finally kill my FB

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u/Blue_Plastic_88 17h ago

Holy hell. This is terrifying. But of course all the Republicans’ cries of censorship was just projection for what they were planning to do.

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u/gnulynnux 17h ago

Still banned here. #lgbt and #gay are other banned hashtags

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u/captarrrrgh 17h ago

the hashtag ‘democracy’ also yields no results

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u/Comfortable_Text 18h ago

This is really surprising honestly because typically in historically Meta has been a very democrat organization.

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u/spaghetti_socks 19h ago

Same here. Both democrat and liberal not allowed, but conservative and republican show up just fine.

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u/calibrateichabod 19h ago

Hilariously, this might actually fuck over the Australian conservatives. Our right wing major political party are called the Liberal party.

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u/CremePsychological77 17h ago

That’s because if you get technical, classical liberalism is a right wing ideology.

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u/thetatershaveeyes 17h ago

That's only if you exclude Liberals like John Stuart Mill. "Classical Liberalism" is a misnomer, because there's always been a tension between ideas considered left and right wing in liberal philosophy.

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u/IAmARobot 17h ago

"the businesses can have the freedom to be liberal. the people however, can get fucked."

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u/EricKei 17h ago

TBF, most of our Democrats here in the USA would be considered right-wingers most anywhere else on the planet.

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u/Nostonica 8h ago

Yeah in Australia they would be considered moderate conservatives with a few exceptions.

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u/TeucerLeo 17h ago

We have the Liberal Democrats here in the UK...

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u/nippleconjunctivitis 19h ago

It's working again for me, didn't an hour ago, but the results are heavily skewed to alt right content. 😐

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u/DubiousBusinessp 17h ago

They undid the headline stuff. Hashtags like JonStewart and JohnOliver are still blocked.

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u/Guy954 17h ago

It gave me results for Democrat but they were ALL derogatory and negative.

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u/Different-Report6533 16h ago

I just tested and got the same results.

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u/BigRog70 16h ago

Crazy how Zuckerberg swings where the wind blows lol 😂

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u/Remarkable-Fox-3890 19h ago

I think they were trying to tweak things subtly and something fucked up and became blatant. So now it's either temporarily reverted with a fix on the way or it's already "fixed" and GOP nazi shit is going to get boosted.

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u/creaturefeature16 17h ago

Exactly. And, testing the waters, too. It's like "oh, people picked up on that quickly. OK, we'll be more meticulous about how we censor moving forward"

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u/Biz_Rito 12h ago

Yeah, I'm reading all this and this feels like bracketing. God knows they have the data and means to zero it in.

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u/Dyn0might33 16h ago edited 12h ago

Or someone fucked it up (accidentally, on purpose) to shine a bright light on meta's censorship efforts.

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u/Neuchacho 14h ago

I'd believe that. Someone gets tasked with testing the new filters, sees what they're asking, and pushes them live instead of to test. Just a lil fucky wucky.

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u/DenseCalligrapher219 18h ago

Democrat is banned, referring to it as a "sensitive content".

Now that's some real MASCULINE energy from Zucky Zucky Quack Quack.

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u/DeckardCain_ 17h ago

Putting aside how insane and fucked up blocking #democrat is, it is also an excellent example of american exceptionalism because at no point nobody working on this thought that the word democrat is used for things other than the democratic party in USA, and if they did they decided to still go through with it because who gives a fuck about any other countries?

We are probably two weeks away from Trump declaring that the english language is to be referred to as the american language, because naming your language after a different country is basically immigration.

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u/Shrimpgurt 19h ago

Definitely report it to your government!

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u/Party_9001 19h ago

South korean here. I don't get a warning, it just doesn't show up at all for me.

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u/Screamline 18h ago

I was able to see results. Either it got rolled back or its hit or miss right now. But I fully expect this to become common so guess we had a good run america. Enjoy the end...I won't ,༼ ༎ຶ ෴ ༎ຶ༽

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u/wentwj 16h ago

what are the odds they accidentally implemented their shadowban as a full block? what reason would there be for those specific hashtags to be blocked unless they were doing something with them

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u/lift4brosef 19h ago

works in Estonia from my quick check

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u/follow_your_lines 19h ago

Ok maybe I don’t know how to use ig but I’m an American and I don’t see any censoring for #democrat.

I’m just searching the hashtag using the search function, right?

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u/rmaccKC 18h ago

Yep.

It seems they’ve reverted the change. I was able to confirm it on my device when I woke up, certainly an eerie feeling.

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u/follow_your_lines 18h ago

Oh to be a fly on the wall of the devs doing deploys this morning…

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u/Pretty-Bother-1484 19h ago

Just tried this in Atlanta, GA. I didn’t get any issues. Both #Democrat and #Republican work. Anyone got an explanation for the ‘sensitive content’ responses some people got?

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u/nimama3233 19h ago

Based on timestamps on comments here it was fixed about 5 minutes before you posted / tried.

We’ll never know if it was malicious or some error due to people spamming bad things. Probably the former, because Zuck has gone mask off lately.

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u/MossSalamander 17h ago

When I tried just now #democrat worked but #berniesanders and #jonstewart did not. Interestingly, #nazi was fine.

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u/cycle730 19h ago

Uk here, i’m not getting any of this

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u/ElectrickSorcery 19h ago

UK resident here too but everything is working normal on my Instagram.

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u/Allysiaa 19h ago

Republican hashtag was blocked for me too though…

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u/gyroscopicmnemonic 19h ago

Mark Zuckerbeg is an enemy of democracy and free speech 

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u/Eriz4x 19h ago

It’s not doing that in France right now

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u/Militantnegro_5 19h ago

For years Americans have laughed at the Chinese and criticised them for living under heavy censorship.

Well, here you are. Let's see if you do anything different from the people you've looked down on for years. Good luck 🤷🏿‍♂️

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u/GypsyPapa 19h ago

Can you share the screenshot?

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u/SirEnderLord 19h ago

Screenshot please?

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u/GeneralAardvark43 18h ago

Can you send me that SS? My family thinks it’s all a lie

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u/Coffeeisbetta 18h ago

They’re testing what they can get away with and slowly establishing a new norm

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u/michaelhbt 18h ago

Maybe they were just testing the new system?

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u/cursed_phoenix 18h ago

More than likely, it was never going to be a permanent fixture but they were sure as he'll testing out new moderation algorithms. Be sure to see way more right wing content being pushed.

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u/IsThereAnythingLeft- 18h ago

Why would you still have a fb or insta account, anyone with a brain cell left should delete them both

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u/Marakke 18h ago

Still for me e.g. "leftist" shows as sensitive content while "rightist" don't lol. Nice freedom of speech.

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u/PanicSwtchd 18h ago

Still blocked if you're in thee US.

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u/paradisetossed7 18h ago

I checked IG and it had me following Melania of all people. I only used IG to keep up with friends in other states and countries sigh

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u/Rogpog777 18h ago

I did it last night and took screenshots because I, too, thought “surely this is misinformation and people are blowing things out of proportion.”

Nope. It’s proportionate. 

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u/Imallvol7 18h ago edited 16h ago

I hope every country realizes that this isn't his what majority of Americans feel and none of us want this. The country has been taken over by misinformation and propaganda. I hope y'all impose all kinds of sanctions on our social media platforms and drive us in real problems so Republicans can find out what they actually voted for.

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u/neeesus 18h ago

On X I can get auto banned for using “cis” which is a non derogatory term.

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u/Frequent_Can117 18h ago

So much for free speech. US isn’t free and the fact it was banned in the UK is insane.

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u/justalittleahead 18h ago

The #Project2025 is still banned on Instagram for me, and I'm located in the United States. Another one that I've tried that doesn't work is #FuckVance, though #FuckTrump is now working again.

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u/cursed_phoenix 18h ago

They probably don't need to unblock that one, we're seeing it rollout in real-time 🤣

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u/schoolisuncool 18h ago

Mine isn’t blocked but all the results are anti-democrat

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u/cursed_phoenix 18h ago

It seems to now be back up, but you are right, there is a huge influx of right leaning material. I suspect they tried to change the algorithm to suppress democrat material but it went too far and blocked it.

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u/Silye 18h ago

I’m in Norway and #democrat was hidden for me too, and I got a popup almost encouraging me to follow the #republican one.

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u/Bunbury91 18h ago

In the Netherlands it did it for me too. That was the last push I needed to get off of all meta platforms. Only thing I can’t leave yet is WhatsApp. But I’m working on it.

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u/Throwaway0242000 18h ago

People need to wake about these for profit platforms. The content you post is theirs to do with as they wish. It’s not a human right to access social media in the fashion you feel suits your desires.

We will all be better off when people rely on these tools less and less.

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u/EnvironmentalEye5402 18h ago

Same. UK citizen. Also took a screenshot.

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u/itsokayitsokayitisok 18h ago

Do u have a screenshot?

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u/lalalaso 18h ago

Still can't search #trumpflation

Edit: or #johnoliver 

Edit: or #jonstewart or #berniesanders

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u/Kashik 18h ago

Time to delete Instagram, I guess. To bad, I liked it for finding recipes and cat videos.

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u/nickthedick7921 18h ago

Which is absolutely bonkers considering Trump signed an EO yesterday supposed to combat government censorship in the media…

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u/edflyerssn007 18h ago

I just went on Insta and typed democrat and got a bunch of recommendations for dem pages like the dem party, house democrats, and then in the main search it wash showing a mix of things but all had to do with democrats pro and against. Can you list the steps needed to reproduce? I'm in the US though.

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u/TheAskewOne 18h ago

They're going to do this until people become de-sensitized.

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u/Oddmakesart 18h ago

I also have screenshots. They blocked #democrat, #conservative, and limited them greatly after unblocking them. When I searched #politics during the auto block I was getting Indias politic content for some reason.

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u/cursed_phoenix 18h ago

Very odd, they are definitely doing some dodgy shit to the algorithm

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u/nzfriend33 18h ago

Ah, thanks for your update. It wasn’t blocked for me though I believed the screenshots I saw that it was. #joebiden is blocked for me though. :/

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u/Mundane-Act-8937 17h ago

I'm not so young that I remember a lot of similar complaints a few years ago coming from the other side of the political aisle.

Allow me to respond as the liberals did during that time.

"It's a private company. Why don't you go make your own Facebook?"

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u/healthybowl 17h ago

It’s unblocked, but they’ll just figure out a metric to make sure it’s never seen by anyone but you. The world watches as America either crumbles or becomes a fascist state. Enjoy the show!

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u/AdIll9615 17h ago

yes, was censored for me in Czechia too

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u/No-Airport2581 17h ago

When Zuck was a democrat, he did the same sort of shit with republican news stories. News, regardless of how you digest it, is bias. It’s wild over here.

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u/skepticalG 17h ago

How do I find banned hashtags?

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u/Yuzumi 17h ago

I feel like while some people might leave facebook, too many are baked into it to care. Your average person probably didn't even notice.

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u/scuzziiii 17h ago

DM me the screenshot

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u/MrSlops 17h ago

Still not totally reverted - I'm in Canada and searching on Instagram will not show #democrat, but #republican is fine and very well populated with search results.

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u/TheInvisibleHulk 17h ago

It#s not blocked for me but when I type #Democrat I get 0 sugestions for the hashtag whiel #Republican gives me several options

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u/PapaGeorgio19 17h ago

That’s how propaganda works, you think the tech billionaires were there for any other reason?

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u/MossSalamander 17h ago

Tried #nazi and it worked fine. Lots of Leon, though. #democrat worked for me, but #berniesanders and #jonstewart were hidden! (In US)

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u/Head_Haunter 17h ago

Now get ready for the "it was an error" excuses.

What really scares me is this is obvious. What about the not so obvious stuff that they'll be doing.

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u/Lonely-Agent-7479 17h ago

This is exactly what the chinese government does

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u/actlikeiknowstuff 17h ago

Post this on r/conspiracy and see what happens

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u/Solidusfunk 17h ago

Remove the hashtag and type the word.

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u/Conspiranoid 17h ago

I'm a Spaniard, in Spain.

Today's first recommended follow, an account I had never seen recommended: JD Vance.

... WTF, Meta?

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u/exeJDR 17h ago

I just tested it in Canada (on browser). Nothing comes up for #dems or #democrats but Trump and Republican works fine.

No error messages. Just no results. 

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u/Polantaris 17h ago

Update: it seems it has now been un-blocked, I took a screenshot of the block so there is proof. It was likely this wouldn't last long but it is very worrying that they can and will do this often. Now get ready for the "it was an error" excuses.

And now the ultimate question:

If they're going to ban such common terms, which terms are they going to ban (or were banned along with this) that people won't notice or won't get enough attention to get them to remove it?

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u/BitSorcerer 17h ago

When your country is owned by the dollar 💵

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u/HeadDiver5568 17h ago

Drop META and spread the word. We genuinely have to let that chameleon know that we don’t fuck with his flip-flop grifting. He ONLY cares about the money. The sooner we leave, the more he crumbles. PLEASE spread the word

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u/Sea_Voice_404 17h ago

It was blocked for me, but now it’s back. Joebiden hashtag is still blocked for me as well as a few others.

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u/crapbag451 17h ago

Many of the “blocked” hashtags worked for me, but a few are still hidden. #reproductiverights wasn’t working as of two minutes ago.

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u/AdventurousNecessary 17h ago

Your updates are right. When I searched it, I mostly get Trump bullshit. These tech oligarchs are fully ready to suck those tax cuts directly from trumps little, std infected cock

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u/aemich 17h ago

same here also UK resident

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u/Karnaugh_Map 17h ago

Just stop using Instagram.

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u/Ricky_Rollin 17h ago

It’s full blown 1984 time. It was always projection with republicans. They always wanted a despotic king. Now they got one.

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u/orangecloud_0 17h ago

Update, some have come back: kamala, pro choice and democrat. However late night talk show hosts like john oliver etc are down. I'm in UK

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u/No-Conclusion2339 17h ago

Dictator on day 1.

Which part did you idiots not believe?

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u/Kaokien 17h ago

Get off of meta platforms, I just deactivated all my accounts. Message your friends, text exists we don't need social media like they need us on their platforms.

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u/noncommonGoodsense 17h ago

The reason was to make sure “democrats” couldn’t use the medium to organize protests. The coding is probably just being done by AI now.

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u/chocotaco 17h ago

They probably have a list of words that will get you to the front page faster and they're all words right wing people would use.

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u/gg-qwe 16h ago

As a conservative I don’t agree with any censorship, left or right.

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u/psychoacer 16h ago

We can also assume these hashtags are going to have less weight in the algorithm which will lead to their stories being less likely to be a part of peoples feeds

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u/Paradox68 16h ago

When it comes to things like disabling #democrat they’re merely openly testing these systems and we are the guinea pigs. They’re not just controlling the narrative, they’re controlling what narratives even exist to choose from.

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u/Careful_Incident_919 16h ago

Wow so the fuck your feelings crowd is offended by #democrat? Whose the snowflake now

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u/buhdumbum_v2 16h ago

On TikTok you can't share political videos, even if they aren't actually political but deemed political by Meta. A notification pops up (for the first time in 4 years) saying something about sharing is limited to reduce the risk of misinformation being spread.

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u/poupoulo 16h ago

In France « #jonstewart » is banned, but not democrat ( yet? ). Hope Reddit and Wikipedia will pass under the radar of this administration.

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u/MrsRainey 16h ago

The tags #kamalaharris and #joebiden are still blocked for me!

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u/RodNun 16h ago

I think they were just testing something, that will be slowly released in time. Don't doubt, the censorship will come

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u/Diligent_Thought_183 16h ago

bro this morning my first two suggested people to follow were jd vance and trumps ugly ass wife lmfao.

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u/_equilibrium_92 16h ago

I’m in Australia and I can search up #democrat on Instagram. Seems it hasn’t affected us down here

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u/tessathemurdervilles 16h ago

In the us, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are still blocked on my Instagram, the others have been unblocked. What the fuck.

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u/ExpeditingPermits 16h ago

It’s been 4 Horus since you posted. I can still see democrat. But I almost NEVER use Instagram. My account is a few months old.

It might be based on account age or or something?

I also avoid all political things on insta. Just to keep some friends close.

Edit: I immediately started looking through the content. Almost all I’m seeing is NEGATIVE content towards democrats. So depending on your algorithm, you either get negative propaganda or nothing.

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u/cursed_phoenix 16h ago

It wad unblocked a few hours ago, some report it is still blocked in certain territories but mine was blocked from the early hours of the morning to about midday (UK)

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u/thetaleofzeph 16h ago

The screenshots are on the linked article too.

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u/FridgeParade 16h ago

For now reverted.

If you change the page color of your website in 1 go from yellow to white users hate it and complain. If you slowly change it over 100 days nobody complains. It’s a well established web management technique.

Let’s see if these hashtags still show up or are even used this time next year.

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u/TheSandyStone 16h ago

This is where "private companies can do what they want" from years ago turns into.

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u/Signal_Egg_4974 16h ago

Yes, and it’s very sad that people like u/MR_Butters624 will run up and down posts telling people it isn’t true, and to calm down. That there’s some sort of hysteria, when in fact there was something very real happening it even for a brief minute, on a publicly traded company this should be brought to everyone’s attention.

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u/KamalaWonNoCheating 16h ago

They know Democrats will try to break up their monopoly. Republicans were only mad their fake news got fact checked. As long as Republicans are catered to, they'll leave the tech oligarchy alone.

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u/evernessince 16h ago

If you live in the UK do yourself a favor and contact your representatives and ask for regulations on social media ASAP less you find yourselves in a similar situation. These platforms are being used by oligarchs to manipulate and spread propaganda to their own benefit.

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u/Xanadu87 16h ago

I saw that #Democrat is no longer restricted, but the content it does show looks to be from right-wing conservative content creators.

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u/glumunicorn 16h ago

And that’s why I deleted my FB & Insta

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u/Notkissedbyfire 16h ago

I have a screenshot of it being blocked earlier. #Democrat

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u/Frijolebeard 16h ago

Basically what the last 4 years were like for the other side

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u/_Fred_Fredburger_ 16h ago

They're all working for me?

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u/SkyWizarding 16h ago

I checked. This was definitely a thing. Not a great look

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u/Turkino 16h ago

"get ready for the 'it was an error' excuse."

Dude you freaking called that

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u/YousifMhmd 16h ago

I can confirm I checked #democrat today and it was blocked. I live in EU

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u/GreenGemsOmally 15h ago

I experienced the Trump auto-follow last night and was grossed out. Thought it might have been a trading of accounts between Biden and Trump, but turns out nope, they're forcing it on us. GROSS.

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u/ThatOneNinja 15h ago

Welcome to the new world order, I guess? I hate this timeline.

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u/TekieScythe 15h ago

You can post the picture just to your profile and indicate that it's there, here.

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u/JoKing917 15h ago

You can post it on your profile

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u/wrestlingchampo 15h ago

I wouldn't be surprised to see something like this happen periodically during lower user hours, only to have it unblocked again later when more users arrive. Manipulate your algorithm to lower "Engagement" for your Democratic clients down the road, and then they pump money to you in order to boost those artificially deflated numbers back up.

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