Instagram and Snapchat recently introduced the beloved Giphy feature that added GIF's to your story updates, bringing your stories to life even more. A few days ago, many users noticed that it was gone and no longer available on their social media app of choice.
The move was rightfully made after a user typed in the word "crime" and a GIF with the N-word appeared with a monkey next to it. “As soon as we were made aware, we removed the GIF and have disabled Giphy until we can be sure that this won’t happen again," Snapchat told TechCrunch, while Instagram said: “This type of content has no place on Instagram. We have stopped our integration with Giphy as they investigate the issue.”
Since the issue, Giphy has responded to the matter saying they have fixed the bug that made the GIF appear.
"A user discovered an offensive GIF sticker in our library, and we immediately removed it per our content guidelines. After investigation of the incident, this sticker was available due to a bug in our content moderation filters specifically affecting GIF stickers. We have fixed the bug and have re-moderated all of the GIF stickers in our library. The GIPHY staff is also further reviewing every GIF sticker by hand and should be finished shortly. We take full responsibility for these recent events and sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended."
No word on whether Instagram and Snapchat will bring back the integration.