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‘I didn’t expect them to be diving so quickly into fascism’: Instagram starts banning words like ‘Democrat’ and ‘Kamala’ on Trump’s 1st day in office, says it’s ‘aware’ of the issue

It doesn't seem to care that freedom of speech is a two-way street.

Donald Trump hasn’t spent more than 24 hours as president, but 47 is already wielding executive orders as carefully as the Hulk makes his way through downtown New York. He’s stripped trans folks like his own supporter, Caitlyn Jenner, of the right to be referred to as a woman, fired every government employee he perceives as a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) hire, and pardoned roughly 1,500 January 6’ers with a stroke of his pen.

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His every move is being celebrated by his supporters, but no one is more excited about Trump than the three richest men in the world. Tech billionaires Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk were more than happy to stand behind Trump on his big day and even happier to wield that legislative power. Zuckerberg is already amending algorithms on Instagram and surprise, surprise, it’s appears to be targeting hashtags in support of Democrats.

It’s totally true, folks: Instagram was hiding the results of words like ‘democrats’—but the site claims that it was an “error affecting hashtags across the political spectrum.” Users quickly started testing words to see what was still permissible, and while ‘Republican” was A-OK, anything that might’ve been considered “anti-red,” like ‘republicans,’ went straight to the no-no list, and it immediately kicked off a waves of conspiracy theories.

Users reported that the search results for #BernieSanders, #Queer, #Obama, #Voteblue, #DNC, #Kamala, #Constitution, #Jan6th, #Insurrection, #14th amendment, #JackSmith, #DomesticTerrorist, #Fascism, #Liberal, #rightwing, #GeorgeConway, #JohnOliver, #Drumpf, and of course, #FuckTrump all had errors as of 6:00am on Jan. 21.

Meanwhile phrases like #VoteRed, #RNC, and #F*ckBiden are all still available for use on the platform, making the line in the sand completely un-ignorable. Meta responded to the BBC’s request for comment, saying it was working to fix the issue and that it was aware that “they risk fueling conspiracy theories and damaging Meta’s reputation.”

If a suspicious algorithm flub wasn’t enough, The Independent reported that some Meta accounts said they were automatically following Trump’s pages even though they never voluntarily elected to do so. Trump and his cronies have been crooning about freedom of speech for years. Musk considers himself a “free speech absolutist,” but their conduct has shown the complete opposite.

On Trump’s first day in office, he signed 200 executive orders, including the “RESTORING FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND ENDING FEDERAL CENSORSHIP,” which claims the Biden administration “trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms.”

“Under the guise of combatting ‘misinformation,’…. the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advanced the Government’s preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate.” 

Of course, Instagram isn’t a branch of the government, but the provisions put in place by the Biden administration were meant to help combat the excessive Russian interference via social media we saw during the 2016 election.

Conspiracy theorists were quick to point out that the censorship, should it remain, will draw the ire of the EU, which has already been openly waging war against big tech. If the European Union were to blanket ban the apps over conservative censorship, everyday Americans would be cut off from a wellspring of support and outside influence. One dreary Redditor compared the idea to “crabs in a bucket.”

There will, of course, still be ways for Americans to connect with those overseas even if the EU were to ban apps like Facebook and TikTok, but with more than 50% of adults relying on social media for news, the few crabs to escape the bucket will have little sway over their entrenched fellows.

Zuckerberg, Bezos, and Musk all attended Trump’s inauguration, and in the wake of his election win, the tech giants donated millions to the ceremony. We all knew the tech royals were more than excited to fall in line with Trump, but as one commenter said, “I didn’t expect them to be diving so quickly into fascism. Even the Nazis were a bit more subtle at the start.”


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Author
Image of Ash Martinez
Ash Martinez
Ash has been obsessed with Star Wars and video games since she was old enough to hold a lightsaber. It’s with great delight that she now utilizes this deep lore professionally as a Freelance Writer for We Got This Covered. Leaning on her Game Design degree from Bradley University, she brings a technical edge to her articles on the latest video games. When not writing, she can be found aggressively populating virtual worlds with trees.