Bullying across all social media platforms is a huge problem.
Any platform that allows netizens to share and create content can be used as a space to spread hate against another individual, group or organization.
This week, Instagram made it very clear it’s working hard to put a stop to online bullying. The platform is rolling out new features to help put an end to cyberbullying
Easier said than done? Yes and no. While fighting harassment and nasty comments is fairly straightforward, there’s more than one way to bully someone on social media. It can be as simple as excluding them from a group chat or posting catty, off-handed remarks on someone’s IGTV video.
“We know bullying is a challenge many face, particularly young people,” Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, said in a recent blog post.
“We are committed to leading the industry in the fight against online bullying, and we are rethinking the whole experience of Instagram to meet that commitment.”
And it’s doing this by asking users one simple question: “Are you sure?”
That’s right, before the image and video-sharing platform allows a user to post a negative or critical comment on another user’s profile, it will ask them if they really want share that nasty message with a fellow Insta-fan.
According to the BBC “Instagram said it was using artificial intelligence to recognise when text resembles the kind of posts that are most often reported as inappropriate by users.”
“This intervention gives people a chance to reflect and undo their comment and prevents the recipient from receiving the harmful comment notification,” Mosseri said.
“From early tests of this feature, we have found that it encourages some people to undo their comment and share something less hurtful once they have had a chance to reflect.”
If you’re interested in learning more about the new features Instagram will be rolling out to help keep that platform safe, read all about it here in the full post on the blog.
What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.
Photo credit: Shutterstock and Instagram.