Social-Media
Instagram deactivates the bug related hashtags that seemed to favor Trump
After a bug has restricted the function for select phrases across the platform, Instagram disabled its related hashtag's. Related hashtags were not displayed on the decades of thousands of hashtag pages affected by the bug, potentially limiting any user who tapped on or searched for the available information as it appeared in a photo or video subtitle.
The problem emerged from a Tech Transparency Project (TTP) report, which BuzzFeed News examines further, that the bug affected hashtags relating to Trump but not to Joe Biden.
Since many of these hashtags — including # creepyjoebiden, # joebidenpedophile and # neverbiden — were derogatory, the disparity has raised concerns that Instagram may favor Trump.
Instagram says it's a bug instead. After BuzzFeed News alerted Instagram about the matter, the company deactivated the feature that had been available in its current iteration since 2018, but the firm argued there was a party leaning. Tens of thousands of hashtags did not display related tags due to a technical error. This feature we have disabled when we are examining, a speaker from Instagram told The Verge.
The company also noted that, even if the Biden hashtags were not, # Democrats were affected by the bug.
Instagram has not explained the bug's source or why it's restricted to some hashtags. The time the bug persisted on the platform is also not clear.
