Instagram Releases New Anti-Bullying Features On 10th Birthday, Expands Shopping to IGTV
Instagram is going to release new anti-bullying features, including one that will automatically wrap comments matching those that have been reported. It also plans to grow its comment warning feature and is currently working on that in selected languages. The photo and video-sharing social networking platform celebrated its tenth birthday today by introducing new features that it considers will help users feel secure and improve ways for creators to make a living and small businesses to grow. The company also launched a shopping feature on IGTV and going to test the same on Reels by the end of the year.
Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, informed in through a blog post that there would be big changes in the app over the coming months, like Tabs for Reels and shopping, messaging improvements and new ways for creators and small businesses to grow. The community will continue to remain the heart of Instagram, Mosseri added.
One thing to note that the new anti-bullying feature that automatically hides some comments similar to already reported comments will not completely delete the comment, instead, users can view it by clicking on “View Hidden Comments.” In another blog post, Instagram clarified that while people don’t want to be subject to negative comments, they wanted transparency into the type of comments that are hidden.
Instagram also intends to expand the comment warning feature it had announced last year. Now, it will show an additional warning when people continuously try to post potentially offensive comments. The Facebook-owned platform said that the Restrict feature has already used by over 35 million Instagram users since it was rolled out last October, to ensure that they can safely moderate their Instagram experience, since most of the negative reactions they received were now hidden.
“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 behavior,” said the company in the blog post. “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.”
Besides that, now it will be easier for users to find the products they want and support their favorite creators, since Instagram included its Shopping service across IGTV. The popular social networking platform will start testing shopping with Reels later this year.
Like its parent company Facebook, Instagram has started labeling state-backed media. Journalist Casey Michel was probably the first to spot this. Instagram sees “state-controlled media” as media networks that it believes may be partially or completely under the editorial control of their government. It said that it keeps these accounts to a higher standard of transparency as it believes it combines the influence of a media outlet with the support of a state.
