Meta, the parent company of Instagram, has recently come under scrutiny following accusations of political bias. The controversy erupted on Monday after users attempting to search for "Democrats" on Instagram were met with a message stating, "we've hidden these results." This incident coincided with the inauguration of President Donald Trump, attended by Meta's owner, Mark Zuckerberg.
In addition to this, Meta has named Joel Kaplan, a prominent Republican, as its new global affairs chief, succeeding Sir Nick Clegg. This decision has further fueled speculation regarding the company's political inclinations. Social media expert Matt Navarra suggested that the issue might be a technical glitch rather than a deliberate act of bias.
"In a hyper-partisan environment, even unintentional errors like this can escalate into accusations of partisanship," said Matt Navarra.
The situation is reminiscent of past tensions between Trump and Meta. Trump and his allies have previously accused Meta of censoring right-wing voices and even threatened Zuckerberg with jail time. However, Trump has also praised Zuckerberg for his decision to cut down on fact-checkers, a move announced as part of a significant overhaul of Meta's moderation policies in January. Zuckerberg cited Trump's electoral victory as a "cultural tipping point" prompting these changes.
Meta's recent engagement with Trump includes Zuckerberg's visit to Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in November and a financial contribution to a Trump fund. These actions have only intensified the debate over Meta's impartiality.
Meanwhile, Instagram's hashtag search function continues to display partisan discrepancies. While searching for "Democrat" or "Democrats" yields no results, the hashtag "#Republican" shows 3.3 million posts.
Meta has acknowledged the issue and is reportedly working to rectify it.
"We're aware of an error affecting hashtags across the political spectrum and we are working quickly to resolve it," stated Meta.
This acknowledgment aims to quell the mounting criticism but highlights the challenges social media platforms face in maintaining neutrality in a highly polarized political landscape.