Instagram Displayed Negative Related Hashtags For Biden, But Hid Them For Trump
Last edited Wed Aug 5, 2020, 09:05 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: BuzzFeed
For at least the last two months, a key Instagram feature, which algorithmically pushes users toward supposedly related content, has been treating hashtags associated with President Donald Trump and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in very different ways. Searches for Biden also return a variety of pro-Trump messages, while searches for Trump-related topics only returned the specific hashtags, like #MAGA or #Trump which means searches for Biden-related hashtags also return counter-messaging, while those for Trump do not.
Earlier this week, a search on Instagram for #JoeBiden would have surfaced nearly 390,000 posts tagged with the former vice presidents name along with related hashtags selected by the platforms algorithm. Users searching Instagram for #JoeBiden might also see results for #joebiden2020, as well as pro-Trump hashtags like #trump2020landslide and #democratsdestroyamerica.
A similar search for #DonaldTrump on the platform, however, provided a totally different experience. Besides showing 7 million posts tagged with the presidents name, Instagram did not present any related hashtags that would have pushed users toward different content or promoted alternative viewpoints.
The difference between these two results, which an Instagram spokesperson told BuzzFeed News was a bug, prevented hashtags including #Trump and #MAGA from being associated with potentially negative content. Meanwhile, Instagram hashtags associated with the Democratic presidential candidate #JoeBiden and #Biden, for example were presented alongside content that included overtly pro-Trump content and attacks on the former vice president.
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Read more: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/instagram-related-hashtags-favoring-trump-over-biden
Well, Zuckerberg?
____
I've edited this hours later to change the subject line, since BuzzFeed changed the headline some time after I posted the OP -- and after they tweeted about it:
Link to tweet
Delarage
(2,186 posts)cp
(6,615 posts)Bug or feature? This is huge. Thank you for posting.
soothsayer
(38,601 posts)MontanaMama
(23,294 posts)Fuckerberg at work yet again. Speaking of Insta...my account is private and the bots requesting to follow me are ramping up daily....probably because I follow lots of political accounts/personalities. They sometimes take the names and photos of high profile people and even use the verified symbol to trick you into thinking it's the real person. I got a follow request from a fake John Heilmann this morning.
Squinch
(50,901 posts)But I'm told here on DU that Zuckerberg is no problem.
BComplex
(8,017 posts)Zuckerberg has no fans here.
blueinredohio
(6,797 posts)Response to highplainsdem (Original post)
geralmar This message was self-deleted by its author.
SpankMe
(2,955 posts)He's a cockroach.
Karadeniz
(22,461 posts)dlk
(11,509 posts)Upthevibe
(8,004 posts)rockfordfile
(8,695 posts)mwooldri
(10,299 posts)usaf-vet
(6,161 posts)KS Toronado
(17,136 posts)posting anti-trumpie replies on a Democratic site called "The Palmer Report" (very insightful guy)
First time they email "we need your cell phone number to insure you're not a Russian troll." So
they never call, I change how I spell my last name, they give me a new account, I go back to talking
to friends on Palmer Report for 4/5 weeks, here comes their suspicious email/need cell phone
again and true to form no phone call from FB. Have no plans to change my name again just to get
back on there. fuckerburg HATES DEMOCRATS and will deny us our 1st amendment rights.
Response to highplainsdem (Original post)
Upthevibe This message was self-deleted by its author.
Ford_Prefect
(7,867 posts)They monitor search algorithms for exactly the situation reported here as an unintended side effect. No way this wasn't noticed and reported. There is only ONE reason it persists.
Response to highplainsdem (Original post)
applegrove This message was self-deleted by its author.
highplainsdem
(48,886 posts)changed.
applegrove
(118,460 posts)mahatmakanejeeves
(57,283 posts)For months, a supposed glitch in Instagram hid anti-Trump hashtags but freely featured anti-Biden ones
MATTHEW ROZSA
AUGUST 6, 2020 11:59PM (UTC)
A new report reveals that Instagram hid hashtags that criticized President Donald Trump while failing to protect those that criticized the presumptive Democratic nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden an odd double-standard that the company insists was due to a "bug." The so-called bug resulted in a bias towards the content users would see about each presidential candidate.
According to a report by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), researchers analyzed the "related hashtags" that came up when they clicked on 10 different popular hashtags about Trump and 10 different popular hashtags about Biden. They found that for the Trump-related hashtags including #trump2020, #donaldtrump and #trump the display for related hashtags was blocked, meaning that users would not be directed to unrelated content including material that portrayed the president in a negative light. When the researchers searched for popular pro-Biden hashtags, however, they found that the site showed related hashtags including many that were critical of the former vice president, including #joebidenpedophile, #creepyjoebiden and #joebidenisaracist.
Instagram seemed to block all related hashtags after a BuzzFeed reporter contacted the social media platform about the report.
"Instagram's 'bug' claims do not pass the smell test," Michelle Kuppersmith, the executive director of Campaign for Accountability (of which TTP is a part), told Salon. "Our review found that 10 out of 10 popular Trump campaign hashtags were protected, while 10 out of 10 equivalent Biden campaign hashtags were not, allowing misinformation. That does not appear to be random bug."
She added, "Likewise, it's unclear how a bug could explain the hashtag for #bradparscale, the Trump campaign manager. In late June, related hashtags were blocked for #bradparscale. However, immediately after his demotion, his hashtags were unblocked. Why did the 'bug' turn off when his campaign position changed?"
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