Meta is diligently working to address an issue on Instagram where searching for "Democrat" or "Democrats" displays a "results hidden" message. Meta clarified it as a technical problem affecting various hashtags, including a Republican one. Social media expert Matt Navarra described the situation as "embarrassing" for Instagram, noting that such errors in today's polarized climate can be misconstrued as partisan bias. Failure to promptly resolve these issues could fuel conspiracy theories and harm Meta's reputation.
Searching for "#Democrat" or "#Democrats" yields no results, while "Republican" retrieves 3.3 million posts on Instagram. Manual searches for "Democrats" only show a message stating the results are hidden due to potentially sensitive content. Similar limitations exist when searching for "Republicans" compared to "Republican."
Meta stated to the BBC that they are aware of the issue impacting hashtags across political ideologies and are swiftly working to fix it. The recent attendance of Mr. Zuckerberg at Trump's re-inauguration is part of a pattern where tech leaders align more closely with the incoming Republican administration. Notably, Joel Kaplan, a prominent Republican, has been selected to succeed Sir Nick Clegg as Meta's global affairs chief, following previous accusations of right-wing censorship by Trump and his supporters. Trump positively acknowledged Meta’s decision to remove fact-checkers, noting the company's progress under Zuckerberg’s leadership.