News has spread like wildfire around social media and blogs about the sudden removal of #EDM from Instagram earlier today. The ban has caused many to believe that it was in result of the recent deaths that occurred during HARD Summer that were allegedly drug-related. Even a petition on Change.org was created with people of the EDM community urging the company to reinstate the hashtag.
According to a recent post from THUMP, the real reason that the hashtag has been removed is not exactly what people are speculating. In the article, THUMP explains that they were emailed by a spokesperson from Instagram, telling them that:
“We block (i.e. make unsearchable) certain hashtags when they are consistently being used to share images and videos that violate our Community Guidelines. In this case, #EDM was being used to share content that violates our guidelines around nudity… We’re also working on ways to better communicate our policies around hashtags.”
This actually holds merit, because there are some dark corners of Instagram with some photos that are not anywhere near appropriate for a social media platform. But hey, with millions for photos being posted per day on Instagram, it’s next to impossible to police it at all times. This is why the easiest thing to do for the company is just to remove a hashtag from being used all together until the situation can be resolved. Just a month ago, the hashtag #curvy was removed as well. But Instagram was slammed with outrage that it was ridding a term that is widely accepted in society, so the hashtag was brought back and is now moderated.
In essence, the likelihood of the very popular hashtag being removed in result of the recent deaths at HARD Summer is not plausible. Although it seems like a perfectly good reason why the hashtag was banned with the recent tragedies that have occurred, it’s just an unfortunate coincidence. Now you might be thinking, “Why aren’t any sexually explicit or drug related hashtags banned?” The explanation is quite clear, actually- popularity. Those “bad” hashtags don’t even compare to the amount of photos that were posted under #EDM. The reason that photos containing nudity or any other illegal content were being posted using #EDM is because the hashtag was so damn popular. I mean, that hashtag was in the 10’s of millions in the photo count. Literally anything was being posted using that hashtag. Photos that had absolutely nothing to do with the EDM community were included under it. People were taking advantage of it and posting anything and everything under it. So it comes as to no surprise that a large number of photos that do not meet Instagram’s standards would show up.
We can all rest easy that Instagram doesn’t actually hate EDM or anything like that. If they really wanted to ban the hashtag for any reason other than what they gave, then all variation hashtags would be gone as well. The hashtag could come back, though there has been no statement as of yet from Instagram regarding the future of #EDM. If the hashtag does come back, be prepared for the it to be moderated just like the #curvy hashtag reinstatement.
Source: THUMP.com
