The land of NSFW Instagram has been without its trademark icon for months now. Following the announcement that emoji would become hashtaggable and searchable in April, Instagram quickly added that the infamous eggplant emoji would not be granted this privilege. The message was clear: The kind of smut-ridden posts that the eggplant emoji usually accompanies have no place in the Instagram community, let alone within its searchable content.
Of course, banning the eggplant from Insta searches did not stop users from tagging their photos with the suggestive aubergine. Rebellion continued quietly, initially with the protest hashtag, #FreeTheEggplant. And now, it seems, intrepid users have figured out a simple way to use the eggplant emoji for their Instagram-after-dark shenanigans, in spite of the photo network's search policies.
It's still true that you cannot search posts for the eggplant hashtag. However, there is not a current ban on multiple eggplants. Searching for two will bring up the most results, but seeing what comes up with three, four, and beyond is sure to be interesting and, depending on what you're hoping to find, worth your while. And, keep in mind, there are plenty of other searchable emoji that will probably bring up similarly dirty results. We're looking at you, peach.