Instagram Will Automatically Hide Negative Comments To Stop Bullying And Harassment

Instagram has outlined several new features that are designed to crackdown on bullying and harassment.

Everyone knows social media can be a breeding ground of unnecessary hate and vitriol and Instagram has been looking at ways to stop users from being affected.

The Facebook-owned company will automatically hide negative comments and has been testing the feature over the past few days.

Instagram

Comments that are deemed to go against the app's policies won't be shown on an individual post and users will have to click the 'View Hidden Comments' to see what nasty things people have said.

The company is also encouraging those who write those nasty messages to think about what they've written before they hit send.

Before a negative comment is posted, a message saying 'This may go against our guidelines' will pop up. People have the option to get rid of the message and send their comment or delete it before anyone sees it.

This feature has been around for a year and Instagram reckons it makes a big difference.

In a statement, the company said: "Since launching comment warning, we saw that reminding people of the consequences of bullying on Instagram and providing real-time feedback as they are writing the comment is the most effective way to shift behaviour.

PA

"These new warnings let people take a moment to step back and reflect on their words and lay out the potential consequences should they proceed. We just started testing this feature in select languages."

Around 3.5 million users have also used another new feature rolled out over the last few months which lets you hide, delete or report accounts and comments.

"We know from research that, while people don't want to be exposed to negative comments, they want more transparency into the types of comments that are hidden," the company said.

There's no indication from Instagram about what type of comments or the way they detect something that could be harmful.

But there are three categories that will grant you a one-way ticket to deletion, which are anything pornographic, comments that praise organised crime or ones that threaten physical harm.

Topics: Instagram, News, Social Media, Technology

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie