Have you ever tried to search important Instagram (META) hashtags like #DuckDynastyBitch or #likeigiveadick only to be served with a “no tags found” message? As it turns out, it’s not that users have never once employed these hashtags; it’s simply that Instagram has made them unsearchable.
Brisbane-based entrepreneur Nick Drewe used “the Instagram API, a list of popular hashtags and a list of foul language” to draw up an unofficial list of the app’s blocked hashtags for his blog “The Data Pack.” Unsurprisingly, hashtags that are likely to yield pornography such as #bigboobs are banned, but so are vague terms, such as #iphone, that upon searching don’t provide much value.
“We’ve stopped serving feeds (both in app and API) for some tags that were too generic and didn’t provide enough end-user value,” Instagram co-founder Mike Kreiger said in an Instagram API developer group.
The list is unofficial and in no way exhaustive but provides some interesting insight into what sort of content Instagram values. We wonder what @hairweavekiller thinks of not being able to search #bigbootyhoe, though.