Over the years, Instagram has evolved into one of the most popular social media networks worldwide with a staggering 1 billion people using the app every month. So, it’s no surprise that with such success and user growth, we’ve also seen some negativity arise in the form of online bullying.
In recent news, Instagram is upping its efforts to confront online bullying by introducing new anti-bullying features. Using artificial intelligence to identify offensive or inappropriate text, Instagram will automatically confront users by asking them “Are you sure you want to post this?” giving the user the opportunity to reflect and undo their comment before they receive a harmful comment notification. Instagram will also begin testing a feature called ‘Restrict’ which will allow victims to secretly block their tormentors without alerting users that they’ve been muted. This functionality will stop restricted people seeing when their victim is active or if they’ve read their direct messages.
Plans for the new anti-bullying features are a result of the latest regulations from the UK government in order to tackle bullying on social media platforms by holding the companies themselves responsible for the harmful material allowed on their networks.
Instagram’s chief executive Adam Mosseri declared “it’s our responsibility to create a safer environment on Instagram”, a statement in which we as a marketing agency providing social media management as one of our services and also as individual users, are completely onboard and support.
(image courtesy of BBC)
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