Is Instagram blocking the #Democrat hashtag?

Is Instagram hiding the #Democrat hashtag from its users?

The answer, at least at the time of writing, appears to be yes — but the reasons why are still unclear.

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, the day after Donald Trump's inauguration, reports began to spread online that the #Democrat hashtag was being blocked for users of Meta's Instagram app.

Mashable attempted to access the hashtag via both mobile and desktop, but we were greeted by a message saying the results had been hidden as they "may contain sensitive content." A "learn more" link took us to Instagram's generic sensitive content help page.

A search for the #Republican hashtag, meanwhile, brought up a page of results as normal.

It's worth noting that as well as attending Trump's inauguration and donating $1 million to his fund, Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg has also made a number of changes to his platforms in the run-up to the new president being sworn in.

Mashable has reached out to Meta and we will update this story if we hear back.