The online wars are filled with trolls and spam. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have pledged to do their part to make them safe places to connect, meaning figuring out ways to reduce abusive comments and spam.
Now, it seems Facebook owned photo and video sharing app is taking cyber bullying and abuse seriously. Yes, that right. The popular mobile app Instagram has introduced two new features — a filter to block certain offensive comments and a spam filter in nine languages including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, French, German, Russian, Japanese and Chinese.
The first filter is optional that can be toggled on or off in the settings. It hides offensive or inappropriate comments from appearing on posts and in live video. However, all other comments will appear as they normally do and you can still report comments, delete comments or turn them off. Also, you can always turn this filter off. To access it, click the “…” settings menu from the profile and scroll to tap “Comments.”
Kevin Systrom, CEO & Co-founder, Instagram announced these features through a blog post, “Many of you have told us that toxic comments discourage you from enjoying Instagram and expressing yourself freely. To help, we’ve developed a filter that will block certain offensive comments on posts and in live video.”
The functionality, which was previously available to a small number of high-profile accounts, now it has been rolled out to everyone, starting in English, but will come in other languages over time.
