Instagram doesn’t seem to want to let up with the hashtag bans. The platform was recently the center of controversy when users discovered that searches underneath #Curvy had been disabled. The ban has since been lifted but now Instagram has taken on #Goddess as its newest target, which is leaving many users a little confused.
Instagram works hard to filter and censor its content to make sure that everything being posted doesn’t violate their community guidelines, hence the reason that the eggplant emoji was banned from searches earlier this year. At some point the site even banned #CaitlynJenner and, more recently, #SandraBland, not because the tags were inappropriate but because the company was attempting to protect the tags from hate speech. We get it. Banning the eggplant emoji seems like a no-brainer seeing as though all you’d find in that search is a massive amount of images that we would imagine are NSFW. But we’re still trying to figure out what it is about #Goddess that’s ban-worthy.
“I can confirm that we did recently block the #goddess hashtag,” a spokesperson for Instagram told The Daily Dot. “Here’s some additional info: We only block hashtags when they are consistently being used to share images and videos that violate our Community Guidelines. In this case, #goddess was consistently being used to share content that violates our guidelines around nudity. We’ve taken similar actions on dozens of hashtags because they were being used to share inappropriate content. We’re working on a way to more quickly restore certain hashtags that have previously been blocked.”
Though the statement did provide a little clarity, many people aren’t taking the bait. Twitter users are pointing out that there might be a bigger reason as to why #Goddess, which is often used to signify female empowerment, was removed even though #God is still being used.
Instagram censored the tag #Goddess…. laughable… what are they afraid of? LOL censor #God while you’re at it.
— ❈pṩẙbrätiönȿ❈ (@IrieEarthRoots) July 28, 2015
Instagram needs to chill, why ban the word #goddess and not #God ?
— Human Crystal (@YungKundalini) July 26, 2015
In addition, users are now calling for Instagram to bring back the #Goddess hashtag.