Instagram, Snapchat drop GIPHY after users find racist gif
Snapchat and Instagram have removed GIPHY features from their platforms, not long after the feature was added. As TechCrunch confirmed, it was due to a racist GIF option that users were able to add to their images.
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According to the tech source, when the word “crime” was searched, a GIF containing a hateful, racial slur appeared. A Snapchat spokesperson explains that GIFs are meant to be “rated PG,” disabling the function until GIPHY's team could take a look at things.
“As soon as we were made aware, we removed the GIF and have disabled Giphy until we can be sure that this won’t happen again… While we wait for Giphy’s team to take a look at it,” Snapchat told the TechCrunch.
Instagram released a similar statement. “This type of content has no place on Instagram. We have stopped our integration with Giphy as they investigate the issue,” an Instagram spokesperson told the tech source.
Giphy responded to the removal, apologizing to anyone who was offended. They explain that they will be fixing the bug in their system and re-moderating all the GIF stickers in the library. Read GIPHY's statement, provided to Teen Vogue, below:
A user discovered an offensive GIF sticker in our library, and we immediately removed it per our content guidelines.
After investigation of the incident, this sticker was available due to a bug in our content moderation filters specifically affecting GIF stickers. We have fixed the bug and have re-moderated all of the GIF stickers in our library.
The GIPHY staff is also further reviewing every GIF sticker by hand and should be finished shortly.
We take full responsibility for these recent events and sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended.
