It was brought to my attention the other day that Instagram treats “IHate…” hashtags differently. And it had me shook. The person who sent it to me is someone I know and trust so I believed her but still didn’t believe it. Now, she had seen it posted originally, and being skeptical, checked it out for herself. It was true. She then sent it to me. I checked it out, and it was true. A couple days later, still true.
This could be a very long winded post about the how women and men are treated differently, but there’s no ending that conversation. There are toooooo many examples. So, I’m going to keep this simple and just to this specific instance.
Go to Instagram and search “IHateMen”. You’ll get NOTHING. Not a single fucking hashtag will populate.

Now, search “IHateWomen”.
See that long ass list?
Yeah. NOT OK.

We all know I will stand behind Instagram on a lot of stuff. The world complains about the algorithm and I defend it. You all know I hate me some Reels, but I still tout their value.
But this shit. This is messed up. If you ban one, you ban them both.
Now, in some very small instance of understanding (very very small), it is noticeable that all of those hashtags have less than 100 posts associated with them. So they are being blocked or diminished in some way.
BUT why are they showing up at all if the men’s hashtag doesn’t? How is this ok? IT’S NOT OK!!!
You may be wondering why I’m posting this. Two reasons. One: I will call out the bullshit. Two: I want this on Instagram’s doorstep and I want it fixed. And I know for a damn fact that I’m on their radar and they see my content and I want them to see this. I want this fixed. Period.
>>>>>
I want to thank @sweetchloroform for originally posting this as well and bringing it to light.
If you want to share this out and help spread the word, I would appreciate it. Let’s fix this.
Do you think such hashtags by certain users on our IG page help us in identifying a specific user persona?