Here's something we learned today—Instagram announced that you can search by and hashtag emojis. BuzzFeed writer Katie Notopolous, perhaps the Internet's biggest fan, wrote about this, and reported that people have already been doing this, so now you too can see what kind of photos people have been uploading for every emoji.
There's one problem. Notopolous tried and failed to find any photos hashtagged with the eggplant emoji. That's because Instagram, a photo sharing app that is notoriously anti-nudity, probably wants to block you from seeing photos associated with the most decidedly phallic emoji.
It's true that Instagram already does this for a bunch of stuff—they want to limit the amount of graphic or harmful content you see, so a search for #penis, #porn or hashtags associated with eating disorders (like #thinspo) won't return any results either, as Notopolous points out. It's not that there is no one out using these hashtags—it's preposterous—it's that Instagram blocks you from finding them through search.
Which is really silly, when you think about it, because Instagram doesn't block people from following Kendall Jenner, who posts photos with nudity on a regular basis. In general, the app's whole anti-nudity regime seems a little disorganized, with female celebrities trying to take it down all the time, like Chelsea Handler, Madonna, and Amber Rose.
In any case, in light of Notopolous' discovery, BuzzFeed started #FREETHEEGGPLANT so that racy Instagrams can thrive on the platform. No word from Instagram on whether or not that's happening yet.
