Now you'll have to find any one of the other hundred-thousand tags to use on posts …
Raging hard with a fake animal pelt tied to your head while Bassnectar or Pretty Lights gets down in front of the laser decks on one of the BEST NIGHTS EVER!? Better not tag it with #EDM anymore, because now that Instagram has banned the popular hashtag, it means nothing. #EDM MEANS NOTHING!
As reported, no longer will people using the photo-sharing service be able to search photos by the #EDM tag starting now. Why? It’s still up in the air, but it’s not an uncommon thing for Instagram to outright block a searchable word — it’s happened before.
Last month the popular time-sucker came under fire for banning the hashtag #curvy, saying the it had consistently been used to share content that violates its terms of service. The Internet didn’t see it as such, and claimed it was an attack on a powerful body-positive term, noting tags like #skiny, #fat and #badonkadonk are still active.
“We block (i.e. make unsearchable) certain hashtags when they are consistently being used to share images and videos that violate our Community Guidelines,” a rep told PulseRadio.net about the ban. “In this case, #curvy was being used to share content that violates our guidelines around nudity."
The company has since reversed its stance, sort of, and allows a certain number of handpicked photos to be searched with #curvy. It’s the same tactic the company employed when #CaitlynJenner was hijacked and used for negative posts around Bruce Jenner’s gender transition.
“We want people to be able to express themselves, and hashtags are a great way to do that,” says a later statement from the company to ReCode.net after unbanning #curvy. “At the same time, we have a responsibility to act when we see hashtags being used to spread inappropriate content to our community. In the case of #curvy, we don’t like putting restrictions around a term that many people use in very positive ways, so we have decided to unblock the hashtag while taking steps to ensure that it’s not used as a vehicle for bad content.”
So, as long as you’re behaving yourself like good little children and dissuade others around you to do the same while posting anything negative in regards to #EDM, maybe the company will reverse its stance against the popular hashtag, too. But we wouldn’t be so optimistic about it, considering there likely aren’t any Internet armies out there willing to go to such battling lengths for an Instagram #EDM hashtag …
Instagram currently bans over 200 searchable words to date, with obvious ones like #porn and #fuck being ousted from the app, while seemingly innocent terms such as #goddess and #eggplant are found to somehow violate guidelines. Which are about as blatantly square as any guideline can be, tbh:
“We want Instagram to continue to be an authentic and safe place for inspiration and expression. Help us foster this community. Post only your own photos and videos and always follow the law. Respect everyone on Instagram, don’t spam people or post nudity."
No law breaking, no soliciting and no nudity — wonderful, sounds a lot like the worst party anyone can ever be invited to ever. No thanks.
If you are out and just absolutely have to share a photo of you and your friends, however, the most popoular terms that have “edm” in them that can still be used are:
#edmlife
#edmlifestyle
#edmfamily
#edmgirls
… and naturally …
#edmontonhumanesociety
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