November 16, 2015
At around 11:30 a.m. Monday, the Philadelphia Business Journal pointed out the hashtag #philly had been blocked on Instagram.
As of 2 p.m. that was still apparently the case. If you click #philly, it will only show photos from around 10 a.m. and earlier, and the following message comes up:
Recent posts from #philly are currently hidden because the community has reported some content that may not meet Instagram's community guidelines.
An Instagram spokesperson told PhillyVoice that the hashtag isn't actually blocked but instead restricted. Apparently, #philly was being used rather frequently to share nude images, sometimes pornographic in nature.
Those types of photos are barred, according to Instagram's community guidelines. When a hashtag is constantly being used to violate one of those guidelines, the most recent posts aren't shown because they're highly visible, the spokesperson said.
So Philly, if you want your full hashtag privileges back, stop turning your timeline into a Milton Street press conference.
