Reasi terror attack: Why is the hashtag #UninstallInstagram trending on social media?

The hashtag #UninstallInstagram has been trending on X (formerly Twitter). The outrage seems to be stemming from some Indian users' alleged inability to use certain hashtags pertaining to the recent terror attack in Jammu & Kashmir’s Reasi.

Due to decades of political unrest, terror attacks in J&K have remained a constant menace. But what happened on Sunday might be the most tragic incident that the country has witnessed in recent months.
The Reasi terror attack
Nine people, including a two-year-old boy and a family of four, lost their lives in a horrific terror attack on a bus carrying pilgrims in Jammu & Kashmir on Sunday. The 53-seater bus, travelling from the revered Shiv Khori shrine to Katra, the town near the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine, was targeted by militants near the village of Teryath.

A barrage of gunfire caused the bus to veer off the road and plunge into a deep gorge in the Poni area. The victims were from different states, including Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Delhi, said an official. The pilgrims had visited the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine and were on their way back to Shiv Khori when the attack occurred.

Seven pilgrims and two bystanders were confirmed dead in the attack. An additional 38 people were injured and are receiving treatment at nearby hospitals. This senseless violence has cast a shadow over the pilgrimage sites in Jammu & Kashmir. Authorities have launched a massive search operation to apprehend the militants responsible for the attack.

The attack has sparked outrage and grief across the nation. The Indian government has vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice and provide all necessary assistance to the families of the victims. However, many Instagram users took to the platform to talk about the issue.
Backlash against Instagram
Calling this an attack on Hindus, many social media users began to share an AI-generated image with the caption “All Eyes on Reasi”. This was similar to the “All Eyes on Rafah” posts on social media that were widely shared by users and celebrities across the globe after 45 civilians in southern Gaza were killed by an Israeli airstrike on May 26.

However, many netizens soon began to claim that they were unable to use the Reasi hashtag because Instagram had hidden it, saying that it was against the platform’s community guidelines. This in turn sparked a fresh wave of disapproval from users who claimed that Instagram was discriminating against one particular religion — Hinduism, in this case.

And this is what has led to the #UninstallInstagram trend on X.
People began to call out Instagram India’s head Suhail Akhtar, with some even suggesting that this move by Instagram was an attack on freedom of speech, including the rapper Raftaar.
Then again, around the same time that some of these posts were being shared, some X users said that the #AllEyesonReasi tag was working perfectly well for them. Even when we checked to see if the hashtag was indeed working, we found that posts with the tag were visible to us.

So did the internet outrage actually work, prompting Instagram to review its guidelines? Or was all the backlash premature without confirming the details? We will only know the entire picture once an Instagram representative issues a statement regarding the matter.