Threads, the app linked to Meta-owned Instagram and touted as a “sane” alternative to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, is blocking searches related to coronavirus and vaccines, per reports.
The two words are among a number of terms that are blocked in the app’s new search function, according to the Washington Post.
Mark Zuckerberg surrounded by guards ( Chip Somodevilla /Getty)
Meta acknowledged in a statement to The Washington Post that Threads is intentionally blocking the search terms and said that other terms are being blocked, but the company declined to provide a list of them. A search by The Post discovered that the words “sex,” “nude,” “gore,” “porn,” “coronavirus,” “vaccines” and “vaccination” are also among blocked words.
“The search functionality temporarily doesn’t provide results for keywords that may show potentially sensitive content,” the statement said, adding that the company will add search functionality for terms only “once we are confident in the quality of the results.”
Lucky Tran, director of science communication at Columbia University, discovered this himself when he attempted to use Threads to seek out research related to covid, something he says he does every day. “I was excited by search [on Threads],” he said. “When I typed in covid, I came up with no search results.”
Rather than deal with messy disputes over what’s allowed and not allowed with regards to coronavirus-related discussion (and perhaps avoid having to disclose more of its internal communications, many of which were the result of requests related to coronavirus censorship), it appears Meta has decided to block searches for any kind of discussion on the topic.
In lieu of real search results, users who search for “COVID” on Threads are met with a pop-up linking them to the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election. Follow him on Twitter @AllumBokhari.