Online harassment has been common since online social networks have been running. One of the biggest names in these social networking sites is that of Instagram and the widely popular site has finally started taking steps to deal with the ethics of online comments. The image sharing network will now allow users the autonomy to choose what’s right for their profiles and what isn’t. The new feature will be rolled out in the coming weeks and will allow users to filter their comment streams. This will make sure that harassing and profane comments are filtered easily.
Instagram will be rolling out a new anti-harassment feature in a few weeks
Instagram is also looking into the possibility giving people the choice to completely turn off comments for their photos. It’s not like there aren’t general policies set up by Instagram which dictate what is ‘acceptable’ speech and what isn’t, it’s just that there are a lot of phrases that may be offensive to some people for some specific reasons. This is why users are going to be given the charge of their accounts and they can filter such comments.
“Our goal is to make Instagram a friendly, fun and, most importantly, safe place for self expression," said Instagram's head of public policy, Nicky Jackson Colaco, in a statement to The Post. "We have slowly begun to offer accounts with high volume comment threads the option to moderate their comment experience. As we learn, we look forward to improving the comment experience for our broader community.”
The fastest way to get feedback on such features is to make them live on high-profile accounts of Instagram. That is exactly what is being done; the new feature will be live on high-profile accounts in the coming weeks. After being tested the service will become available to all of us ‘normal users’ as well.
This new feature is just one way for the growing harassment issue on social networking sites. The issue, in which some are blamed to be too lenient and some are accused of high censorship Instagram is taking the middle ground and allowing users to control this part themselves.
However, Instagram is still not really sure whether it should allow users to block comments completely on their photos. This is still being discussed and we will keep you updated as things move forward.
