Facebook unblocks #saltbae hashtag after chef Nusret Gokce serves golden steak to Vietnam minister
- The social media firm is investigating to find out why the hashtag, a nickname for the Turkish chef, was blocked
- Days ago, Gokce served a gold steak to a Vietnamese official at his restaurant – where steaks can cost nearly US$2,000 – at a time Vietnam’s economy is struggling amid the pandemic
Facebook’s parent company on Tuesday said it had unblocked #saltbae, a hashtag referring to celebrity chef Nusret Gokce, having found it had been blocked globally days after a video emerged of Gokce feeding a gold-encrusted steak to a senior Vietnamese official in London.
“We’ve unblocked this hashtag on Facebook and we’re investigating why this happened,” said a spokesperson for Meta, confirming the tag had been blocked for all Facebook users around the world, not just in Vietnam.
While the hashtag was blocked, a search for the hashtag generated a message saying community standards had been violated.
In a US Congress hearing earlier this year, Meta’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said artificial intelligence plays a major role in “content moderation”, responsible for taking down more than 90 per cent of content deemed to be against Facebook guidelines.
The video, originally posted on Gokce’s official TikTok account, showed Vietnam’s Minister of Public Security, To Lam, filmed last week being fed a gold leaf encrusted steak by the Instagram-famous chef – often pictured theatrically seasoning and slicing cuts of meat – at his London restaurant, where a steak sells for up to £1,450 (US$1,960).
Lam, 64, was in Britain during a visit by senior Vietnamese officials to the UN climate conference, COP26, in Glasgow.
But images of him chewing on the gilded beef caused a stir both on and offline in Vietnam, with many questioning how such a high-ranking Party official allowed himself to be caught on camera indulging in food carrying such a high price tag amid a state crackdown on corruption.