The bisexual community has seen massive erasure after Twitter amended its search policy.
Twitter has come under fire after it amended its search algorithm to effectively erase photos and videos that use the hashtag #Bisexual. Anyone who tries to use the hashtag to search for Photos, Videos or News will be shown a no result page.
Other terms such as #gay and #lesbian were reportedly blocked too, but are now visible.
In a blog post by Twitter, it clarified its new rules on which types of behaviour would get users banned from the platform. It wrote,
“Online behavior [sic] continues to evolve and change, and at Twitter, we have to ensure those changes are reflected in our rules in a way that’s easy to adhere to and understand. Today, we’re publishing a new version of the Twitter Rules to clarify our policies and how we enforce them. While the fundamentals of our policies and our approach have not changed, this updated version presents our rules with more details and examples,’ the company wrote.
“In the weeks ahead, we’ll launch separate pages for each of our policies to provide even more context about what each policy covers and our rationale for enforcement.’
Other terms that have been removed include #Transexual.
.@TwitterSupport we’re surprised to see some searches for #bisexual and #gay blocked. We urge you to fix – #LGBTQ visibility matters. pic.twitter.com/RTjcCdl7Pc
— HumanRightsCampaign (@HRC) November 5, 2017
Twitter has now responded to the huge outcry, saying “We’ve identified an error with search results for certain terms. We apologize for this. We’re working quickly to resolve & will update soon.”
