In a bid to combat cyber harassment and bullying, popular image-based social media site "Instagram" has pushed for new safety features including turning comment disabling on posts and removing followers on private accounts.
According to Techcrunch, Instagram's new security features gives Instagram users better control of their Instagram accounts and how they interact with other Instagram users. These new security features will limit abusers from taking advantage of Instagram to attack the opinion of others, especially for pictures that contain topics that are sensitive.
Originally, Instagram allows filtering comments by keywords, but comment disabling offers better protection from online harassment that could damage a person's integrity. Comment disabling was available to a small number of accounts but will be available for everyone soon.
Instagram is adding a feature that will allow people to turn off comments on individual posts https://t.co/fq6mlKEJ4g pic.twitter.com/Wx2YyBKZzz
— CNN (@CNN) December 6, 2016
Also, Instagram users will be able to like comments and not only the post in order to promote positive engagement and reduce online harassment. Though likes won't rank comments so that negative comments end at the lower end of the comment box, Instagram reportedly might have plans to do that in the future. To turn on comment disabling for images, Instagram users will see an "advance setting" menu before publishing a post -- commenting can be turned back on later on.
According to Engadget, Instagram users will also be able to anonymously report posts that promote "self-injury" as one of its new security features. This means that Instagram users who feel that a fellow Instagram user is planning to harm themselves, they can flag the post for review where a team will reach out to the poster and offer them needed help.
Lastly, Instagram accounts that are set in private will be able to remove Instagram users following them without the need to block them. This gives Instagram users with private account better control of who sees their posts without being too harsh to followers. People who are removed from the private accounts follower list won't be notified of the change.
