Instagram removes ‘mute white people’ button from app after backlash
Instagram’s “mute white people” button has been deleted from the social media app after widespread backlash and criticism that the sticker was racist.
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Instagram’s “mute white people” button has been deleted from the social media app after widespread backlash and criticism that the sticker was racist.
Instagram's "mute white people" button has been deleted from the social media app after widespread backlash and criticism that the sticker was racist.
Instagram has a “mute white people” button in stories ? pic.twitter.com/GBDwqxqRAb
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich)
I’m going to need an explanation for this new racist Instagram sticker.... pic.twitter.com/NdLMZtHYUZ
— Ashley StClair ?? (@stclairashley)
According to the Washington Examiner, the "mute white people" button is called the "unbothered sticker", and it was created by Refinery29, a social justice blog filled with other totally not racist claptrap. The sticker was uploaded to GIPHY, and available for use on Instagram, along with others such as "Pay Black Women," "Reparation$$$," and "Afro-Latina Magic." There have been more than 3 billion views of these uploads.
The move to silence white voices from discourse comes as the Black Lives Matter movement continues to push that voices who are not black, latina, Indigenous, or other marginalized groups, should be put forward.
In Australia, for example, Black Lives Matter Melbourne issued a list of required behavior from white people attending the events, which include instructions such as no selfies, and that “If a black person tells you to do something, you do it immediately without question.”
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