Meta’s Threads platform blocking ‘potentially sensitive’ keywords from searches

Threads, a social media platform from Meta, is temporarily blocking keywords in the platform’s search for a number of “potentially sensitive” topics including those related to COVID-19 and vaccines.

The platform is working to roll out updates for its search engine that will put safety measures in place and limit the spread of misinformation, the company said.

“We just began rolling out keyword search for Threads to additional countries last week,” a Meta spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement. “The search functionality temporarily doesn’t provide results for keywords that may show potentially sensitive content. People will be able to search for keywords such as ‘COVID’ in future updates once we are confident in the quality of the results.”

Users found that content related to “covid” and “long covid” were met with a blank screen, The Washington Post first reported Monday. Instead of search results, the users received a pop-up linking them to the website for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Other words that were blocked on the platform’s search included “sex,” “nude,” “gore,” “porn,” “coronavirus,” “vaccines” and “vaccination,” according to the Post.

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COVID-19 hospitalizations have seen an uptick heading closer to the fall and winter months, though not nearly as much as this time last year.

The Food and Drug Administration approved updated COVID-19 vaccines on Monday as part of a shift to treat fall updates of the COVID-19 vaccine much like getting a yearly flu shot.