Main image via newsmax.com + Family Zone
While sharing parts of your life on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or whatever social media platform you prefer, may seem like the best thing to do right now, it does come with its share of cons.
One of the biggest cons? Cyberbullying.
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When you share a post online, you’re immediately opening yourself to comments from those around you. And those comments may not always be positive or in your best interest.
There have been many cases around the world where users face extreme bullying online and some of those cases even lead to suicide, but by then, it’s too late to do anything.
Instagram has decided that enough is enough and are currently testing out a new feature that will hopefully curb online bullying.
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The social media platform will soon be launching a test that will give users the power to “shadow ban” a user from their account.
For those of you wondering what a shadow ban is, it’s basically blocking or partially blocking a user from your account without the blocked user being aware that they have been restricted to your content.
The new feature from Instagram will allow users to “restrict” accounts from publicly commenting on your post and the comments made will only be visible to you and the “restricted” user.
The shadow ban will also hide your online visibility to the blocked user and will also not show “read” on your DMs.
Image via Instagram
And that’s not all that Instagram’s doing to curb cyberbullying.
Separately, the platform has also announced that it has rolled out a new feature that will allow its artificial intelligence to flag potentially offensive comments and ask the commenter if they really want to follow through with making such a comment.
With this new measure, “some” users will be allowed to reflect on their actions and be given the opportunity to undo their comment.
Image via Instagram
“It’s our responsibility to create a safe environment on Instagram,” Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram noted. “This has been an important priority for us for some time, and we are continuing to invest in better understanding and tackling this problem.”
While we can’t be 100% sure that these new features will help to stop online bullying completely, we’re glad that Instagram has begun to take measures to do what they can to help the problem.
Do you think that Instagram is moving in the right direction?
Info via The Verge