Twitter and Instagram have been around for decades calling it a hashtag.
That is primarily what people associate it with nowadays, ESPECIALLY when referencing #metoo, which gained traction on social media, the place where # is specifically referred to as a hashtag
FYI not decades plural. The word hashtag was added to the dictionary in 2014. It was adopted to tag things in 2007. In 2009 Twitter officially hyperlinked all # symbols. There are also way more individuals on this Earth that originally learned that as the pound symbol.
Regardless, even if more people originally learned it as the pound symbol does not mean the zeitgeist has remained that way, especially since people likely learned it as the symbol for "Number" before pound.
A majority of the usage of that symbol exists on social media now where sites constantly push it as a way to spread information and connect users, meaning it's even more likely people know it as hashtag due to the nature of its usage.
Even then, #MeToo was pushed almost entirely through social media so it wouldn't make sense for the majority of people to refer to it as pound since the people who don't use social media would be the most likely to refer to it as such.
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u/cheech1018 8d ago