Typing the word "dyke" brings on Instagram's censors

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      Medium.com's OneZero publication has revealed that one of the world's most popular social-media platforms flags a word commonly used to describe lesbians.

      According to writer Hannah Harris Green, Instagram asked if she was sure she wanted to write the word "dyke" in a post.

      Instagram even offered an "undo option".

      It came when she was sending a message about an androgynous friend who was on a billboard for Lyft to coincide with Pride.

      "I went ahead and posted, then got another message saying, 'We’re asking people to rethink comments that seem similar to others that have been reported. If we made a mistake, let us know,' " Harris Green wrote.

      Her piece cited other instances in which Instagram censored the word "dyke", including when Zoe Leonard wrote a poem entitled "I Want a Dyke for President".

      Canada's Trademarks Office database reveals that Pride Toronto applied to register the words "Dyke March" in 2015 but the application was subsequently withdrawn.

      However, for more than a decade, dyke has been recognized by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a term associated with Pride.

      "More than 10 years later, the word dyke seems to be censored more than ever on a platform that many queer women use to build community," Harris Green noted. "And that might be because Instagram’s new policies too easily result in censorship."

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