Following concern over cyber-bullying and the affects of social media on the mental health of young people, Instagram is making an effort to reduce their tolerance of bullying on the app.
On a recent blog post to Instagram’s official website, they go into detail about their new feature which is now available on the app with the aim to reduce the number of users who are victim to verbal abuse.
The new tool identifies comments which appear to include some form of bullying or hateful speech. If it appears to do so, the app will ask the user if they “Are sure?” about the comment they are about to post. The goal of this new feature is to have the user re-think their comment before it could lead to an emotional reaction from the recipient.
In an official statement, the Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, said, “This intervention gives people a chance to reflect and undo their comment and prevents the recipient from receiving the harmful comment notification”.
Instagram also have plans to implement a further tool which will allow you to approve or disapprove a users comment if it appears to include hate. This means that the victim of a hateful comment will be able to restrict certain accounts from having a comment visible on their posts.
For another social media news story, read about Twitter’s new update here.