The “related hashtags” feature has just been disabled by Instagram after a recently found bug in the option has limited the hashtags to specific phrases on the platform. The related hashtags had stopped appearing on tens of thousands of pages with hashtags at first which further also resulted into a hindrance for users to take advantage of the information available which one obtains by clicking on any hashtag that they see on a video, picture or by doing their own search with keywords.
First revealed in a Tech Transparency Project (TTP) report, the part of the problem was bigger than one could think. While presenting the issue hidden in the report, BuzzFeed News made it public that the bug was directly affecting Joe Biden’s related hashtag, whereas the one trending on the name of Trump were still appearing well. Instagram’s disparity became even more obvious when there were derogatory hashtags like #creepyjoebiden, #joebidenpedophile, and #neverbiden - which may be an indication that Instagram was ready to support Trump aggressively in this election.
However, when Instagram was asked about the issue, the company’s spokesperson has said that it was a bug which was available on the platform in its current form since 2018. But to make the situation better and fix the issue of related hashtags, Instagram immediately disabled the feature and will do their investigation regarding how the bug got implemented to this point. The company has also made the claim that #democrats were also directly affected by the bug.
While Instagram didn’t give any clear answer on the source of the bug or why it remained active for only a few of the hashtags, there hasn’t also been any official confirmation on how long will the company take to fix the issue and bring back the “related hashtags” feature.
Read next: Instagram is Planning to Add a New Countdown Feature to Reels Clips
First revealed in a Tech Transparency Project (TTP) report, the part of the problem was bigger than one could think. While presenting the issue hidden in the report, BuzzFeed News made it public that the bug was directly affecting Joe Biden’s related hashtag, whereas the one trending on the name of Trump were still appearing well. Instagram’s disparity became even more obvious when there were derogatory hashtags like #creepyjoebiden, #joebidenpedophile, and #neverbiden - which may be an indication that Instagram was ready to support Trump aggressively in this election.
However, when Instagram was asked about the issue, the company’s spokesperson has said that it was a bug which was available on the platform in its current form since 2018. But to make the situation better and fix the issue of related hashtags, Instagram immediately disabled the feature and will do their investigation regarding how the bug got implemented to this point. The company has also made the claim that #democrats were also directly affected by the bug.
While Instagram didn’t give any clear answer on the source of the bug or why it remained active for only a few of the hashtags, there hasn’t also been any official confirmation on how long will the company take to fix the issue and bring back the “related hashtags” feature.
Read next: Instagram is Planning to Add a New Countdown Feature to Reels Clips
