AUSTIN, Texas — From the Lone Star State to New York City and beyond, activists have rallied to share their outrage at the circumstances surrounding the death of Sandra Bland, the woman police say killed herself in jail three days after being arrested for a minor traffic violation in Waller County, Texas. Earlier this week, many of Bland’s supporters using social media to share images and video from their protests and vigils, found Instagram a less welcoming place than usual.
Social media users first noticed something amiss with the #SandraBland hashtag on Instagram on Sunday, and began spreading their concerns to their friends and using other hashtags on the social network, as well as on Twitter:
https://instagram.com/p/5pAGf8rkvC/
When a user searches for a hashtag on Instagram, a list of “Top Posts” (the most popular photos and videos) is usually returned, followed by the most recent items listed in chronological order. However, although #SandraBland had well over 200,000 photos on Instagram, only a few dozen “Top Posts” were appearing in searches.
After hearing from several concerned activists and citizen journalists, MintPress News reached out to Instagram’s press department for an explanation. An unnamed Instagram official responded to our request, explaining that #SandraBland was temporarily restricted to only Top Posts because, due to its popularity, the hashtag had been flooded with hate speech and violent or threatening images — all of which violate Instagram’s Terms of Service.
The spokesperson explained:
“Content in the ‘Most Recent’ section of a hashtag can be abused because the photos and videos that appear in that section are highly visible. To address this kind of abuse, we may temporarily restrict the visibility of content that appears under a hashtag to the ‘Top Only’ section, which we review regularly to ensure that it meets our Community Guidelines. We have removed the restrictions on #SandraBland and it is now showing ‘Most Recent’ content.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, #SandraBland was displaying normally and had grown to over 250,000 photos, largely from supporters of Bland and the #BlackLivesMatter movement. No obvious hate speech was visible on the first several pages of photos and videos.
https://instagram.com/p/5pnPkwEqh2/
Alexis Sobel Fitts, a staff reporter with The Huffington Post, reported on another popular hashtag which had to be restricted on the network recently:
“Earlier this month, Instagram restricted the #CaitlynJenner hashtag during a speech Jenner gave at a sports award ceremony, after a swarm of users began using the hashtag to post derogatory comments. While Jenner was on the podium, new posts to the hashtag were blocked. When the quantity of hate-speech posts dropped shortly after her speech, the hashtag resumed working normally. “
According to Fitts, Instagram is considering making its hashtag moderation policies more transparent as a result of the outcry:
“I asked an Instagram spokesman why the company doesn’t notify users, or disclose on its blog, when a restriction goes into effect. He said it’s considering changing the policy.”
Instagram, which was acquired by Facebook for $1 billion in 2012, is one of the fastest growing social networks on the Internet, according to Re/code. A Pew Research study showed that 26 percent of U.S. adults were on the network in 2014.