Summary
Meta’s Instagram faced criticism after searches for “Democrat” or “Democrats” displayed a “results hidden” message, while “Republican” returned 3.3 million posts.
The issue emerged after Donald Trump’s inauguration, which Meta owner Mark Zuckerberg attended.
Meta attributed the problem to a technical error affecting political hashtags and promised a quick fix.
Critics, however, flagged concerns over perceived political bias, especially as Meta has recently shifted content moderation policies and aligned closer to the Republican administration, including donations to Trump and appointing a Republican as global affairs chief.
Tip of the iceberg. Even if this was a mistake, we don’t know what any engines are hiding if they don’t display results.
The mistake was that they got caught. Going forward they will be sure to shadow ban any content the orange turd doesn’t want.