If there’s one constant about social media, it seems to incentivize the worst behavior in some people. And that’s something that Facebook and its divisions want to change.
Along with a raft of antibullying and community improvements, Instagram has experimented with limiting interactions and audiences on its platform for some time now.
But today the company has made some new features official and they’re bound to make the platform a better experience overall for some users.
These include the ability to limit comments and direct messages on particularly popular posts, admonishments to users when they are about to post an offensive comment, and a filter for direct message requests.
The second feature, in particular, is aimed at curbing bad behavior through a warning system that lets users know that their comments could potentially be offensive and even against Instagram’s community standards. Limiting comments on particularly popular posts is especially interesting as that feature seems aimed at eliminating or stopping the tidal wave of comments that can flood a person’s account during a viral situation.
Further, it could also really put a halt to a lot of the spam activity that popular posts tend to attract in the comments section. The direct messaging feature basically sounds like a spam feature like those you would find for your email inbox which, again, we’re sure will make life better for accounts with particularly large followings.
In their blog post outlining the changes, Instagram restates their reasoning for these new features as well as their commitment to making the social media platform a better place for users.
“We hope these new features will better protect people from seeing abusive content, whether it’s racist, sexist, homophobic or any other type of abuse. We know there’s more to do, including improving our systems to find and remove abusive content more quickly, and holding those who post it accountable,” Instagram writes.
What do you think of Instagram’s latest move to limit abusive interactions on the platform? Let us know your thoughts on this in the comments below.
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