Instagram has announced in a new statement that the company wants to take more action against online bullying and negative comments in the future - and two solutions were also presented.
Instagram wants to do more for its users in the future and is declaring war on online bullying and nasty comments. Adam Mosseri published a new post on the topic of online bullying entitled "Our Commitment to Lead the Fight Against Online Bullying".
"We can do more to prevent bullying on Instagram, and we can also do more to empower victims of bullying to advocate for themselves. Today, we're introducing new features in both areas. These tools are based on a deep understanding of how people bully each other and how they respond to bullying on Instagram, and this is just the beginning."
The post outlined two ways in which the fight against bullying will continue. A new AI function has already been introduced today that will warn users when they write an offensive comment. A new feature will also be tested that will give users better control over the comment field - among other things, individual users will be able to decide who can comment on their posts.
"In the last few days, we've started rolling out a new AI-based feature that notifies people when their comment may be considered offensive before it's published. This intervention gives people the opportunity to reflect and undo their comment, preventing the recipient from receiving the hurtful message. In initial tests of the feature, we found that it encourages some people to undo their comment and write something less hurtful," said Mosseri.
If the system detects an obscene comment, the author will see a message asking “Are you sure you want to publish this?” – the user can then take appropriate action.
How bullying could be prevented
The second method against online bullying is to restrict the comment section. Many victims of bullying do not dare to take action against their tormentors, mostly out of fear of the possible consequences. This includes blocking the person in question. Instagram now wants to introduce a feature that is similar to an invisible block. This allows the user to restrict a person from their profile.
"Once you restrict someone, comments on your posts from that person will only be visible to that person. You can choose to make a restricted person's comments visible to others by approving their comments. Restricted people cannot see when you are active on Instagram or when you have read direct messages," explains Mosseri.
In his blog post, Mosseri promises that it will not just be limited to these two options – the company will continue to develop the system and fight tyrants.
Notice – Bullying has far-reaching negative consequences for the health as well as for the professional and private situation of the victim – there are various ways to do something about bullying. A 24/7 contact point for all people in psychological distress is the telephone counseling service with the Germany-wide telephone numbers 08001110-111 or -222. Apple products – Amazon continues to lower prices (Photo by Unsplash)
