@GottaLaff good morning Laffy.

[chris@mstdn.chrisalemany.ca]

@GottaLaff good morning Laffy.

Overnight there seems to have been censorship happening on Instagram for #democrat vs. #republican

See the now large thread of replies confirming this worldwide here: https://mstdn.chrisalemany.ca/@chris/113864600222476627

It may have now changed in the past hour or two. It seems both searches are working.

Regardless, it is a very bad look.

[cawguy@mstdn.ca]

@chris I don’t care if it has changed. For an unknown period of time, that hashtag was blocked. I’ve followed you long enough that I trust your reporting of what you’ve personally witnessed. Keep calling it out.

[chris@mstdn.chrisalemany.ca]

@CAWguy thanks.
There is BBC article now too.

Instagram hides search results for 'Democrats'

Meta says it is working quickly to resolve the problem, which has prompted accusations of bias on social media.

(www.bbc.com)

[cawguy@mstdn.ca]

@chris I don’t have Insta so I can’t test it myself: that’s why I rely on so many here for “taking one for the team” by keeping their pulse on those other platforms.

[chris@mstdn.chrisalemany.ca]

@CAWguy well, my version of pulse keeper, my wife, may soon be extricated from those hellscapes as well, she was noticing a bunch of her friends leaving FB for Bluesky. The exodus is real!

[john@vyrse.social]

@chris @CAWguy
(sigh) I wish they were exodusing to somewhere without another round of hefty switching costs in future, but...yay?

[clintonanderson@universeodon.com]

@john @chris @CAWguy

Yeah, Bluesky is just another scumbag

[ikuo1000@mas.to]

@chris @GottaLaff To confirm, I'm in the US and just checked, the following searches on Instagram are still returning no results for me, as if the hashtag doesn't exist:

#democrat
#democrats
#democraticparty
#voteblue
#postcardstovoters
#abortion
#climatecrisis

H/T @foodnpolitics for additional hashtags to check

[ikuo1000@mas.to]

@chris @CAWguy I appreciate this article existing but think the reporter could have done a LITTLE more legwork as this "technical problem" is affecting a lot more hashtags than just "democrat(s)".

[chris@mstdn.chrisalemany.ca]

@ikuo1000 @CAWguy indeed

[chris@mstdn.chrisalemany.ca]

@john @CAWguy indeed. I encouraged her to post a link to socialbc.ca (it was all local folks) instead of bluesky. We'll see how it goes! But ya bluesky will get shut down within a month at this rate...

[john@vyrse.social]

@chris because of volume or...?

[chris@mstdn.chrisalemany.ca]

@john no, I believe once it gets large enough that Zuck, Musk and the like think it a threat it will either get bought out or the current owners/backers will be arm twisted into the same bootlicking the rest of corporate social media America is in.