Hate speech is finding a home on Instagram

The aftermath of a national emergency follows a now-familiar pattern. Various bad actors race to fill social platforms with misinformation and outright hate speech. Reporters perform simple searches for conspiracy theories and offensive keywords, and write up stories documenting what they find. Platforms belatedly issue contrite statements, saying there is no place for this kind of thing on their platforms, all evidence to the contrary.

Lather, rinse, retweet.

In the wake of last week’s domestic terror attacks, though, a new vector for bile has emerged. More than ever before, journalists are finding vast swaths of hate speech on Instagram. Yesterday, I mentioned this story from the New York Times that found nearly 12,000 posts with the...

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