Instagram Blocks #EDM Hashtag Citing Nudity Issue

To the chagrin of Instagram users worldwide, the picture and video sharing platform has confirmed that it has recently blocked the #EDM hashtag. Find out which other hashtag was temporarily banned as well for similar reasons.

#EDM (short for “electronic dance music”) has been banned by Instagram. A search of the hashtag will display results for associated phrases, but never the exact tag itself.

In an interview with TIME, Instagram’s spokesperson Gabe Madway said that “in this case, #EDM was being used to share content that violates our guidelines around nudity”. He added that the social media platform is working on a way to quickly restore previously blocked hashtags and to better communicate its policies with regards to hashtags.

This is hardly the first time that Instagram has blocked hashtags; their banning of #curvy caused a huge upset to users for blocking a body-positive term. In its defense, Instagram said that the hashtag was blocked as it led users to pornographic images. #Curvy has now been restored, though under close moderation by the social media team. Let’s hope they find a better way to keep the hashtags in check without having to resort to such drastic measures.