Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Facebook, Instagram Unblock Hashtag #Sikh After It Was ‘Mistakenly Blocked on March 7’


Facebook and Instagram have unblocked the hashtag #sikh and apologised for it. Instagram said the hashtag was “mistakenly blocked” due to a report received in early March. Although the block was in place for nearly three months, Facebook became aware of the issue on Wednesday, after a large number of people outraged on social media for not allowing them to use the #sikh hashtags on its platforms. Instagram notably unblocked the hashtag shortly after receiving user reports. However, Facebook itself took some additional time to unblock.

“We investigated this issue and found that these hashtags were mistakenly blocked on March 7th following a report that was inaccurately reviewed by our teams,” Instagram said in a Twitter thread while giving clarity on the #sikh hashtag blocking.

Interestingly, the company added it became aware of the blocking just on Wednesday following the feedback it received from the community. “Our processes fell down here, and we're sorry,” it continued .


 Several people had raised the issue on social media but it was finally noticed by the Instagram team on June 3.


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