Searches for the word “dog” on Instagram’s stories feature are showing an emoji for a takeout box associated with Chinese American food, angering people who are concerned the app is reinforcing racist stereotypes.
An Instagram employee noticed the issue over the weekend, according to a post on an internal Facebook message board, while users of the popular photo-sharing app have complained about the problem since 2019. Instagram is owned and operated by Facebook.
“How are the emoji’s being recommended in this and can we remove this so this doesn’t perpetuate Asian racial stereotypes?” wrote the employee, who works as an Instagram product integrity program manager. "I’ve tested this with 3 of my family members and it shows up for them.”
In tests on Apple devices, BuzzFeed News was shown the Chinese American food container in searches for “dog” while attempting to place an emoji