Not a lot has been done to curb this unfortunate side of social media, but Instagram is looking to change that. In a comment to the Washington Post, the company said it will soon let you filter comments on your own post.
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One of the first big hints that Instagram was checking out moderation tools came during the Taylor Swift insta-raid last week when it appeared that comments with more than 26 snake emoji were being mysteriously disappeared.
The social media platform will soon allow users to filter out comment streams and completely turn off comments on their own posts if they choose.
“Our goal is to make Instagram a friendly, fun and, most importantly, safe place for self expression”, Instagram’s head of public policy, Nicky Jackson Colaco, told The Washington Post in a statement.
The anti-harassment tools which will be made available by Instagram will enable everyday people – that is, users who do not have much action on their accounts – to moderate their comment experience on the photo-sharing site.
High-profile accounts will also be the first to get the feature as it goes live, as this gives Instagram the most valuable feedback in the shortest amount of time. It’ll also be possible to turn off comments altogether on a post-by-post basis. If a follower comments with those banned words, his or her comments will be hidden from view.
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Instagram’s announcement comes in the midst of a broader ongoing conversation about online harassment, particularly around default-public services like Twitter. If they implement new policies, they could be accused of violating people’s freedom of speech. It’s giving users the ability to make the choice about what’s acceptable or not for themselves.
