Instagram and LGBTQIA+ content: Is the platform now specifically censoring content?
shows you what you are interested in. This is the accepted premise about how it works-Algorithms. However, that is only half the truth. Because under the new “Sensitive Content” policy, certain content is prevented from being played out. Even those that shouldn’t fall into the “sensitive” category at all. Such as images and videos with the hashtags #lesbian, #bisexual, #gay, #trans, #queer, #nonbinary, #pansexual, #transwomen, #Tgirl, #Tboy, #Tgirlsarebeautiful, #bisexualpride, #lesbianpride.
At least that's what journalist Taylor Lorenz, who has been working for for a long time, wantsWashington Postworked, found out in research. She shared her findings on the topic and the alarming assessment of a social media expert on her Substack platformUser Mag.
Instagram and the censorship of LGBTQIA+ content: This is what is said to have happened
Taylor Lorenz chose Instagram for her article “Instagram blocked teens from searching-related content for months” with US young people who belong to the queer community – and who pointed out on their Instagram accounts that certain content was no longer shown to them. Content tagged with hashtags common to the community. For example, if they entered the keyword #trans into the search bar on Instagram, instead of the usual compilation of the latest or most relevant posts on the topic, they only received a blank page.
The explanation for the phenomenon: Instagram must have subjected content to queer-related keywords to its “sensitive content” regulation, which is intended to protect young people (and adults who actively choose this filter) from content that glorifies violence and/or sexualized content. On theInstagram info pageit says about the “Sensitive Content” filter that the platform launched in 2021: “Sensitive content is posts that do not necessarily violate our rules, but can be disturbing to some people. These include posts that contain depictions of violence or sexually suggestive content.”
Using a function in the settings, adult users can decide whether or not they want to use the filter that leaves out “sensitive content” in the feed and the explorer page. Teenagers under the age of 16, on the other hand, have had to use an Instagram teen account since September 2024, where sensitive content is automatically displayed. “Restrictions on sensitive content: Teens automatically have the strictest settings for sensitive content. This limits what sensitive content (e.g. people fighting or cosmetic procedures) teens see in Explore or Reels, for example. (…) Teenagers under the age of 16 need a parent’s permission to relax the standard protection features for teen accounts,” says Instagram.
The problem, as Taylor Lorenz summarizes in her article: that content tooseem to be put on the same level as content glorifying violence or pornography. To find out how this could happen, the journalist contacted Meta (the internet company that includes Instagram, but also Facebook and WhatsApp) itself.
This is how Meta reacts to the censorship allegations
And indeed: Some keywords surrounding LGBTQIA+-relevant content, such as political education posts, were prevented from being played out under the umbrella of “sensitive content”. That's like MetaUser Magclaimed that it had happened “accidentally” and that an investigation would be launched to understand where the error occurred. It is still unclear to what extent this “mistake” also happened outside the USA and whether Instagram users in Germany could also be affected.
A statement that many people within the community will certainly find unconvincing, given that the process is, as Leanna Garfield, Social Media Safety Program Manager atGLAAD, formulated, could also be a deliberate censorship. In other words, making unpleasant content invisible due to political orientation. After all, the issue of “protecting young people” has been pushed forward by conservative politicians for years, especially in the USA, in order to declare war on trans* people in particular.
The fact that content creators from the LGBTQIA+ community have been repeatedly pointing out for years that their content has so-called shadow bans also suggests that the incorrect labeling of the content could be more than an oversight or have been labeled “non-recommendable” by Meta.
In short: the matter is serious. Because it shows that a platform that prides itself on democratizing content appears to be actively intervening in the distribution of content. And as if all that wasn't enough, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, also decided to stop fact checking on Instagram and Facebook.
The end of fact checking and a Trump supporter on the meta board – will Instagram now suffer the same fate as Twitter?
Since 2016, Meta has relied on independent organizations that have verified the facts spread on the Instagram and Facebook platforms in different countries and in different languages. An important system, especially in the age of AI and, which is now to be thrown overboard again, as Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement on January 7thVideo messageannounced via Facebook. Starting in the USA, Zuckerberg says he wants to rely on so-called user responsibility “similar to 'X'” instead of a fact-checking system. Violations against platforms should therefore only occur after active complaints from users and should no longer be proactively pursued. This is more in line with the current political climate – and the ideal of “free expression”.
Less regulation and more “freedom”, that is the narrative that Zuckerberg is once again selling. In this case, however, what conversely means: less protection for vulnerable groups such as the LGBTQIA+ community and more misleading information, as was already observed when the entrepreneur and Tesla CEO Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022 - and the platform after him political ideas “liberated”. Elon Musk, for example, decided to generously lay off the employees who took care of “critical content”, the so-called “content moderators”.
In addition, since Musk took over, verified accounts and media have become harder to recognize from the platform now known as X. The famous blue tick that was responsible for displaying such a verified account is now available for purchase to everyone. In addition, the entrepreneur had users who had previously been blocked because of racist or transphobic statements reactivated under the guise of freedom of speech and used his redesigned platform, not least to actively support the election campaign.
The censored LGBTQIA+ content on Instagram could be just the beginning, the beginning of the end of a platform on which vulnerable groups could more or less safely connect and find relevant, secure information. Perhaps it is even the second big step towards the end of social media in general - because the (US-American) platforms can no longer fulfill their former promise of democratic togetherness, exchange of ideas and networking without moderation and without a clear stance against hatred and incitement. So the danger is that Instagram, like “X” before it, will become a hollow support machine for the political power fantasies and financial interests of its CEOs - and whether we still feel like spending several hours in a place like that Spending weeks is more than questionable.
