Why you haven’t seen GIFs on Instagram Stories and Snapchat

Snapchat posts and Instagram Stories are always entertaining to watch, and even more fun to put together thanks to the addition of GIFs and stickers that users are now able to feature on both apps. With that said, you were probably pretty bummed out last week when you realized that the Giphy feature is no longer available on either of the apps. And if you’re confused as to why GIFs on Instagram Stories and Snapchat are missing, there’s actually a pretty alarming reason that explains it all.

The Giphy feature has been temporarily removed because of a racist GIF that was spotted by a user in the GIF library.

The GIF in question appeared on both apps, and it shows the phrase “N****r Crime Death Counter – Keep Cranking Bonzo, the Numbers Just Keep on Climbing!” The words appear alongside what looks to be a game show host and a number ticker. Once the offensive graphic was discovered, Giphy released a statement to TechCrunch saying the following:

"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."

It’s obviously not yet clear how the GIF ended up on the site in the first place, though it likely has a lot to do with it slipping through the cracks in a sea of other GIFs. It’s also not clear when the feature will be available again, but it’s nice to see that all three platforms immediately made the effort to resolve the issue.