Instagram today announced a new set of tools to assist users in safeguarding their accounts against abusive comments and messages. The firm will also add tools for screening abusive direct message (DM) requests and a mechanism for users to prevent others from leaving comments or sending DMs when a post becomes popular. It will also generate strong warnings about harassing people on the site, which explain the possible repercussions.
The business recently revealed that it was testing Limits, a new anti-harassment feature mentioned by Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri in a video update last month. If you’re being bullied on Instagram, you may now temporarily disable your account.
An innovation like this might have aided in combating recent racist attacks on Instagram after the Euro 2020 final. Enraged fans assaulted several England players after their team lost. The incidents, which included racist comments and emoticons, demonstrated how little Instagram users could protect themselves when their posts go viral.
Instagram users report unwelcome remarks and DM requests from strangers during these spikes in attention. During busy times, Limits allow users to pick who can interact with them.
In Instagram’s privacy settings, you can restrict non-following accounts as well as recent followers. Limits prevent these accounts from making comments or sending DM requests for a certain number of days or weeks once enabled.
Twitter has been contemplating a similar set of tools for viral users. Limits, an Instagram feature that was previously in beta, is now available to everyone across the globe.
It claims to be testing machine learning to identify a surge in comments and direct messages. It will encourage users to switch on Limits through a notice in the Instagram app.
Hidden Words
‘Hidden Words’ screens requests that include offensive words, phrases and stores them in a Hidden Folder that you may choose not to see. It also filters out spam and low-quality requests. However, Instagram has recently added additional abusive language to its database, including emoji strings used to insult sportsmen.
Hidden Words will soon be available to all Instagram users globally after a restricted rollout earlier this year. Instagram profiles with a larger following will get messages in their DM inbox and Stories tray encouraging them to use the feature.
Hide More Comments
‘Hide More Comments’ was added. This enables users to quickly hide potentially harmful comments that violate Instagram’s policies.
Another modification will be to the warnings that show when someone makes a potentially offensive remark. When users attempted to submit potentially harmful remarks numerous times, Instagram would warn them. The firm claims users would now get the stronger message right away.
Users get information about why their comments are hidden. The explanation given is that it contains racial language or other infractions of the site’s rules. If a person continues to break the community rules, his or her account “may be terminated.”
While techniques for preventing online abuse are still being developed, they may be used to silence opponents. For example, a creator might utilize anti-abuse technologies to conceal unfavorable interactions if they were propagating disinformation or conspiracies. This would enable the creator to portray their account as famous and well-liked. This may be seen as marketing clout and brand pacts.
Instagram must consider the effects of giving creators greater control over online harassment on the entire creative economy. “We think that these new features will help to better protect people from harmful content, whether it is racist, sexist, homophobic, or any other kind of abuse,” Mosseri said in a statement announcing the changes. In addition to strengthening our processes, we recognize we must hold individuals who submit abusive material responsibly.
Read Official Blog Post – Instagram Adds Additional Anti-Abuse Tools
