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Instagram made the news this summer after black football stars in England were bombarded with racist messages after their team’s final defeat at Euro 2020. Today the company is trying to prevent some of the these behaviors only recur with the introduction and extension of three security features.
Among them is something called “limits”. Enabling this option prevents anyone who is not following you, or who has recently followed you, from commenting or sending a DM. The feature is available to everyone around the world today, and Instagram points out that it will likely be more useful to businesses and creators who expect a flurry of responses. Of course, turning off comments or private messages altogether would also work, but Instagram says this is a solution for people who still want the ability to positively engage with their community. The company says it is also “exploring ways” to preemptively suggest users to activate the feature when it detects a spike in activity.
Additionally, Instagram is expanding its hidden words feature launched in April, which allows users to automatically filter DMs with offensive words, phrases, and emoji, relegating them to a hidden folder. The feature now has a larger list of potentially offensive words, emoji, and hashtags. And finally, the app issues tougher warnings to people who attempt to post offensive comments. (This type of post already existed but only appeared if someone tried to post multiple times.)
“We hope that these new features will better protect people against abusive content, whether racist, sexist, homophobic or any other type of abuse,” the company wrote in a press release. “We know there is more to do, including improving our systems to find and remove abusive content faster, and hold those who post it accountable.”
Racist harassment of football stars – Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho – prompted Prince William and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to speak out, along with the English Football Association. Instagram clearly had to do something, and these new features can help, at least to the people who find them.
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