Instagram Caught Hiding Posts That Say "Immigrants Make the Country Great"

Instagram users are baffled after an innocuous, strawberry-adorned illustration of the words "immigrants make the country great" was flagged by the social media network and hidden by the platform's moderation tech.

"We use technology or a review team to identify content that should be covered," a notice obscuring the post reads. "This post doesn't go against our Community Standards, but may contain images that some people might find upsetting."

Other users encountered a "sensitive content" message on the same post.

"This photo may contain graphic or violent content," it reads, even though the inoffensive post clearly doesn't.

Austin-based illustrated paper goods company Mazapán Paper Co. originally posted the image on the platform earlier this year.

"This is a country of immigrants," the business wrote in the caption. "No one is illegal on stolen land."

The company claims an automated post-screening system was to blame — not human intervention.

"That screen was incorrectly applied as a result of an automated process and had already been removed," Meta communications specialist Andy Stone tweeted.

Users were taken aback by the flagging, hypothesizing that it was an example of progressive politics being censored. After all, the wording of the image is likely meant to evoke the Trump administration's "Make America Great Again" slogan, albeit with an inverted message.

Some called out Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg for kowtowing to the Trump administration.

"What the f**k, Instagram?" a Bluesky user wrote.

"Really glad we let these tech billionaires control all of our communications infrastructure and make the digital architecture racist," a different user complained.

We've previously encountered plenty of glaring shortcomings in Meta's attempts to flag inappropriate content.

Earlier this year, reporter Taylor Lorenz found that Instagram had been blocking teens from searching LGBTQ-related hashtags for months under its "sensitive content" policy, which is meant to restrict "sexually suggestive content."

In its Help Center, the social media platform claims that it wants the site to be a "safe and respectful space for everyone."

"To help people avoid posts they'd rather not see, we may limit the visibility of certain posts that have been flagged by the Instagram community for containing sensitive content," the company explains on its website.

Meta's community standards policy on "violence and incitement" allows for the removal of "language that incites or facilitates violence and credible threats to public or personal safety."

"This includes violent speech targeting a person or group of people on the basis of their protected characteristic(s) or immigration status," the policy reads.

As part of its "violent and graphic content" policy, the company removes the "most graphic content and add warning labels to other types of content so that people are aware it may be sensitive before they click through."

Apart from flagging feel-good slogans supporting immigrants, Meta's filters are also failing to catch AI-generated content, according to a recent investigation by NGO AI Forensics.

AI slop is proliferating on the platform, including gruesomely disturbing imagery like AI-generated fetish content of "Asian amputees" and people with Down syndrome.

Earlier this year, Meta had to intervene after an error flooded personal Reels feeds of Instagram users with violent and graphic videos across the world.

"We have fixed an error that caused some users to see content in their Instagram Reels feed that should not have been recommended," a spokesperson told Reuters at the time. "We apologize for the mistake."

More on Instagram: Zuckerberg’s Instagram Is Hosting AI Fetish Videos of "Asian Amputees"