Some social media users have accused the corporation of political prejudice, pointing out that the problem has been present since Monday’s inauguration of President Donald Trump, whom Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Meta, attended.
That is untrue, according to Meta, who claims that it is a technical issue that has also impacted other hashtags, including one that is Republican.
Matt Navarra, a social media specialist, claimed that it was “embarrassing” for Instagram anyhow.
“In a hyper-partisan environment, even unintentional errors like this can escalate into accusations of partisanship,” he stated.
“If these issues are not resolved quickly they risk fuelling conspiracy theories and damaging Meta’s reputation.”
The hashtag “Republican” yields 3.3 million entries on the social networking site, yet users who type “#Democrat” or “#Democrats” get no results.
