Instagram now lets you hide abusive or annoying comments from trolls. It’s about darn time.
The company first rolled this feature out for businesses in July, allowing them to auto-hide any comments with offensive words and phrases. The feature appeared under a ‘Comment Moderation’ sub-menu of your app settings.
It essentially works the same here. Go to your settings, click on ‘Comments’ and the toggle on ‘Hide Inappropriate Comments.’ Instagram will then filter words and phrases ‘often reported as inappropriate.’
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But of course, trolls have been finding their way around filters since the internet was born, using misspelled slurs or sometimes creating entirely new ones.
Thankfully, you can add your own custom keywords and phrases, but Instagram will have to do more than just a simple word filter to make the network feel welcome; Bigots can often shout offensive or abusive comments without using specific offensive words.
Still, it’s a welcome step in the right direction. The company itself describes this as the ‘first’ feature it’s introducing to help people from “diverse backgrounds, races, genders, sexual orientations, abilities and more” feel safe.
The feature is available now on iOS and Android.
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