Facebook and Instagram have unblocked the #sikh hashtag after almost three months. It took them that long to realise that the platforms were blocking them.
The social media platforms said that the block happened “mistakenly” as a result of a report that came out in March this year.
As per Facebook, it became aware of the problem on 3 June after feedback from the Sikh the community.
Instagram was quick to unblock the hashtag while Facebook took several more hours after that to get it done.
While the hashtag was blocked, users who were searching for the #sikh hashtag were being shown an error message instead.
There was outrage among the Sikh community on social media after multiple users posted that they were not being able to use the hashtags. The Sikh Press Association raised the issue with the social network on Twitter.
In a tweet, the Sikh Press Association said, “Why has Instagram blocked the hashtag #Sikh @instagram @mosseri? In the same week that #Neverforget1984 trends on Twitter, Instagram seemingly conspires to suppress the truth about the atrocities of the 1984 Sikh genocide by censoring the faith of 27 million people.”
There is still uncertainty around why the hashtag was blocked in the first place or why it took so much time for Facebook to realise it was happening.
In a statement, Facebook said that the block took place on 7 March after a review was “inaccurately reviewed by our teams.”
“We investigated this issue and found that these hashtags were mistakenly blocked on 7 March following a report that was inaccurately reviewed by our teams.”Facebook
“We became aware that these hashtags were blocked today following feedback we received from the community and quickly moved to unblock them. Our processes fell down here, and we’re sorry,” Facebook added.
This is not an isolated incident. Earlier this week, many users on social media had reported that they were unable to post or view #BlackLivesMatter content. Instagram later admitted it was happening due to an error in a spam detection program.
The Quint has reached out to Facebook as to why there was a delay in their response to the matter. As soon as we hear back from them the story will be updated.
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