Following recent racist attacks, Instagram is rolling out more anti-abuse features – TechCrunch

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Instagram is now rolling out a set of new features to help users protect their accounts from abuse, including offensive and unwanted comments and messages. The company will introduce tools to filter out abusive direct message (DM) requests as well as a way for users to prevent others from posting comments or sending DMs during peak attention spikes, such as when they become viral. Additionally, those who attempt to harass others on the service will also see stronger warnings against doing so, which detail the potential consequences.

The company recently confirmed it was testing the new anti-harassment tool, Limits, which Instagram director Adam Mosseri referred to in a video update shared with the Instagram community last month. The feature aims to give Instagram users an easy way to temporarily lock out their accounts when they are the target of a flood of harassment.

Such an addition could have been useful in tackling the recent racist attacks that took place on Instagram following the Euro 2020 final, which saw several English footballers severely harassed by angry supporters after the teams were defeated. . The incidents, which included racist comments and emoji, raised awareness of how little Instagram users can do to protect themselves when they have gone viral in a negative way.

Image credits: Instagram

During these sudden spikes in attention, Instagram users see an influx of spam comments and DM requests from people they don’t know. The Limits feature allows users to choose who can interact with you during these peak times.

From Instagram’s privacy settings, you’ll be able to turn on limits that restrict accounts that don’t follow you as well as those belonging to recent followers. When limits are enabled, these accounts cannot post comments or send DM requests for a period of your choosing, such as a certain number of days or even weeks.

Twitter envisioned a similar set of tools for users who go viral, but has yet to implement them.

Instagram’s Limits feature was previously tested, but is now available worldwide.

The company says it is currently experimenting with using machine learning to detect a spike in comments and private messages to trick people into activating limits with a notification in the Instagram app.

Another feature, Hidden Words, is also being extended.

Designed to protect users from abusive DM queries, Hidden Words automatically filters queries containing offensive words, phrases, and emojis and places them in a hidden folder, which you can choose to never display. It also filters out requests that are likely to be spam or of poor quality. Instagram doesn’t provide a list of the words it blocks to prevent people from playing with the system, but it has now updated this database with new types of offensive language, including emoji strings – like those that were used to abuse footballers – and included them in the filter.

Hidden Words had already been rolled out in a handful of countries earlier this year, but will reach all Instagram users globally by the end of the month. Instagram will push accounts with more followers to use it, with posts in both their DM inbox and in their Stories bin.

The functionality has also been extended with a new option for “Hide more comments”, which would allow users to easily hide comments that are potentially dangerous, but which did not violate Instagram’s rules.

Another change will be the warnings that appear when someone posts a potentially abusive comment. Already Instagram was warning users when they first tried to post a comment, and it would later display an even stronger warning when they attempted to post potentially offensive comments multiple times. Now, the company claims that users will see the strongest message the first time around.

Image credits: Instagram

The post makes it clear that the comment may “contain racist language” or other content that goes against its guidelines, and reminds users that the comment may be hidden when posted accordingly. It also warns the user if they continue to violate community guidelines, their account “may be deleted”.

While systems to combat online abuse are necessary and underdeveloped, it is also possible that such tools are being misused to silence dissent. For example, if a creator spread misinformation or conspiracies, or if people called him in the comments, they might turn to anti-abuse tools to mask negative interactions. This would allow the creator to paint an inaccurate picture of their account as popular and valued. And that, in turn, can be harnessed in marketing power and branding deals.

As Instagram empowers creators to deal with online abuse, it must also assess the potential impacts of these tools on the overall economy of creators.

“We hope these new features will better protect people against abusive content, whether racist, sexist, homophobic or any other type of abuse,” Mosseri noted, in an announcement about the changes. “We know there is more to do, including improving our systems to find and remove abusive content faster, and hold those who post it accountable.”

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