Instagram will be launching a new feature that is designed to curb abusive messages during “sudden spikes”.
The speciality of this new feature is that it automatically hides messages and comments from unknown people.
These people could be the ones who do not follow you – or just started following you – users who switch it on.
Its main purpose is to stop abuse from large population “who simply pile on in the moment”, Instagram said.
The firm explained it by specifically mentioning the racist abuse that followed the men’s Euro 2020 football final as an example.
At Euro 2020, when England got defeated in a penalty shootout, black players were exposed to a gush of racist abuse including on social media platforms.
Sudden Spikes
As the level of abuse rose it led to calls from the Prime Minister and others for social networks to do more to prevent it. And if required there would be several subsequent arrests as well.
Instagram said its new upgrades were premeditated to protect people from “a sudden rush” of negative attention.
“Creators and public figures sometimes experience sudden spikes of comments and DM [direct-message] requests from people they don’t know,” it said in its announcement.
“In many cases, this is an outpouring of support – like if they go viral after winning an Olympic medal.
“But sometimes, it can also mean an influx of unwanted comments or messages.”
Generally, well-known users were able to completely disable all comments and messages. But with the help of this feature, anyone can easily mute those unwanted commentators or followers.
And it could be switched on or off at any time, Instagram said.
Moreover, Instagram declared that it was bringing out it’s previously launched Hidden Words feature for everyone worldwide.
In addition to this, it had also “expanded” the blocklist of words, hashtags and emojis the system automatically blocked to riddle out foul messages.
This list could also be customized by individual users
It had also strengthened the language of pop-ups when users try to post “a potentially offensive comment’. A warning is issued that their accounts could be deleted for repeat offences.
It follows Twitter’s announcement on Wednesday:
- It had deleted more than 2,000 tweets targeting England’s footballers in the wake of the Euro 2020 final
- The UK was the country of origin of by far the largest proportion of the racist abuse
- Of the accounts it had permanently suspended, “99% of their owners were identifiable”
- It was testing a tool that “temporarily autoblocks accounts using harmful language”
