Instagram is stepping up its efforts to protect users from harassment and abuse via DM, with stricter enforcement of the rules for those who repeatedly violate them, and an improved option to turn off DMs has been added, allowing this to be done for selected user groups.
What Instagram:
"We want Instagram to be a place where everyone can connect with the people and brands they like. But we also know that, just like in the real world, there will always be those who abuse others. Recently, the issue escalated with racist online abuse targeting football players in the UK. We do not want this to become a pattern on Instagram."
We have seen various racial attacks against high-profile football players in the UK, with players from Manchester United Chelsea and Liverpool, all of this has happened through their Instagram Direct inbox. A joint statement from Everton, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United condemned these actions and called on Instagram's parent company, Facebook, to do more to protect users from this type of abuse.
The fact that these incidents occurred in direct messages complicates things, Instagram noted:
“Because DM is a feature used for private conversations, we do not use active content detection technology for things like hate speech or harassment in the same way we do elsewhere. But there are still steps we can take to prevent this type of behavior.”
In line with this, Instagram announced a number of new measures to combat such incidents.
First, the company will deactivate the accounts of people who send messages that violate the network’s rules.
“At present, when someone sends DMs that violate our rules, we prevent that person from sending any more messages for a certain period of time. Now, if someone continues sending such messages, we will deactivate the account. We will also deactivate new profiles created to bypass our restrictions.”
This is another point of concern, since people can simply create accounts and continue abusing the platform. Now Instagram is tightening its approach to violators.
In addition, Instagram aims to make the option to turn off DMs available for personal profiles; this option is currently available for creator business profiles.
“We’ve started rolling out these options for personal accounts in many countries and hope to make them available to everyone soon. People can also choose to turn off tags or mentions from anyone they don’t know, or block anyone who sends unwanted messages.”
Instagram also explained that it is working on new features to filter profanity in DMs, which it hopes to launch soon.
It is good to know that the platform is taking a firmer stance. This is a key opportunity, given the high-profile nature of the victims; IG should emphasize that such attacks will not be tolerated in any form.
