As part of its efforts to combat abuse on Instagram, Facebook announced today it is adding three new features. The social media platform came under the spotlight after three Black England players were subjected to racial abuse after the Euro 2020 final loss. This caused a global reaction with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaking out against the actions.
The first of the three new features from Instagram is the ability to limit comments and DMs even further. “To help protect people when they experience or anticipate a rush of abusive comments and DMs, we’re introducing Limits: a feature that’s easy to turn on, and will automatically hide comments and DM requests from people who don’t follow you, or who only recently followed you,” Facebook announced in a news post.
With Limits, Creators will have more control over who can comment and send DMs to them on Instagram. Limits is rolling out globally to everyone and it can be turned on or off under privacy settings on Instagram. Facebook says it is also working on ways to detect an unusual spike in comments and DMs so Instagram can notify you to turn on Limits.
Related: Instagram Introduces More Control Over Sensitive Content in the Explore Tab
Another of the three new features is a stronger warning reminder when users try to post “potentially offensive comments” multiple times. Instagram already warns users when they try to post a potentially offensive comment, but the warning will now be stronger when it repeatedly notices a user doing the same.
Lastly is Hidden Words, Instagram rolled out the feature earlier in the year to select countries but it says the feature will now be available to everyone globally. Hidden Words will let you filter “offensive words, phrases and emojis into a Hidden Folder,” so you do not have to open such DMs. Spammy and low-quality DMs will now be filtered henceforth.
Instagram says it will continue to fight hate on its platform and that it is looking forward to collaborating with industry, governments and NGOs for this cause.
Image: Facebook
