Meta’s Instagram and Facebook blocked then unblocked hashtags referencing a massacre in Ukraine.
The hashtags that were temporality blocked were in relation to the Bucha massacre. The ABC has reported that civilians were killed by Russian soldiers in the streets of the town and there are rumours there’s a mass burial nearby.
However, Russia has denied responsibility for these civilian deaths and has declared it is just propaganda from Ukraine.
Naturally, people were on social media discussing the massacre and sharing information about what happened but the hashtags they were using were blocked.
Як вам? #bucha, #BuchaMassacre, #RussianWarCrimes hashtags have been blocked on @instagram @InstagramComms @mosseri pic.twitter.com/oAqTx8mJUg
— spamdoboga (@OlenaDub) April 3, 2022
Meta employee Andy Stone took to Twitter to clear up why the hashtag was blocked, he wrote: “This happened automatically because of the graphic content people posted using these hashtags. When we were made aware of the issue yesterday, we acted quickly to unblock the hashtags.”
However, once Meta was made aware it did unblock the hashtag.
This happened automatically because of the graphic content people posted using these hashtags. When we were made aware of the issue yesterday, we acted quickly to unblock the hashtags.
— Andy Stone (@andymstone) April 4, 2022
Social media is currently having to face how to best and most safely report on an ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia and the results are messy.
