Instagram Rolls Out Updates to Combat Abuse

Instagram has just rolled out a handful of updates to protect its users from abuse, including the option to block other accounts a user may already have, making it more difficult for them to interact again on Instagram.

Since launching Hidden Words last year, Instagram says more than one in five people with large followings have turned on the feature to automatically filter harmful content from their comments and message requests.

Instagram is now testing automatically turning on Hidden Words for Creator accounts. Everyone will continue to be able to turn these settings on or off at any time and build a custom list with additional words, phrases, and emojis.

Some new updates to the feature include:

• Expanding Hidden Words to cover Story replies, so offensive replies from people you don’t follow will be sent to your Hidden Requests folder and you never have to see them.
• Supporting new languages, including Farsi, Turkish, Russian, Bengali, Marathi, Telugu, and Tamil.
• Improving our filtering to spot and hide more intentional misspellings of offensive terms, for instance, if someone uses a “1” instead of an “i”.
• Adding new terms to filter message requests that might contain scams or spam. We’ll start doing this in English in certain countries, with more languages and countries coming soon.

According to Instagram, nudges can reduce the amount of hurtful remarks on Instagram, which is why it is introducing more of them.

Now, a new notification will encourage people to pause and consider how they want to respond before replying to an offensive comment. These nudges are live now for people whose apps are set to English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Chinese, or Arabic