Instagram announces new feature to stop bullying on social media

"Online bullying is a complex issue," Instagram stated in a press release on Monday. Photo / 123RF

Instagram is taking a stand against bullying within their app.

On Monday, the social media network revealed two new features that are designed to cease negative interactions between users.

"Online bullying is a complex issue, for years now we have used artificial intelligence to detect bullying and other types of harmful content in comments, photos, and videos," Instagram revealed in a press release.

"As our community grows, so does our investment in technology. This is especially crucial for teens since they are less likely to report online bullying even when they are the ones who experience it the most."

The first new feature will notify users when their comment may be offensive to other users — before it is even posted, reports Instagram.

"This intervention gives people a chance to reflect and undo their comment and prevents the recipient from receiving the harmful comment notification," Instagram said. "From early tests of this feature, we have found that it encourages some people to undo their comment and share something less hurtful once they have had a chance to reflect."

The second feature, which is yet to be released, is being created to empower Instagrammers to "stand up to this kind of behaviour".

"We've heard from young people in our community that they're reluctant to block, unfollow, or report their bully because it could escalate the situation, especially if they interact with their bully in real life," they said. "Some of these actions also make it difficult for a target to keep track of their bully's behaviour."

The feature, named Restrict, will allow people to "restrict" a user, allowing comments on Instagram to only be visible to the commenter.

"You can choose to make a restricted person's comments visible to others by approving their comments," Instagram explained. "Restricted people won't be able to see when you're active on Instagram or when you've read their direct messages," the popular app concluded.

Facebook's COO Sheryl Sandberg acknowledged the new features in an Instagram post of her own.

View this post on Instagram

Today we announced two new @instagram features to help stop bullying online.⁣ ⁣ Young people tell us they’re hesitant to block, unfollow, or report bullies because it could make their situation worse. With “Restrict” you can protect your account from bullying without notifying the person targeting you. Once you restrict someone, only you and they can see their comments on your posts unless you approve their comments. And “Comment Warning” lets people know when their comment might be considered offensive before they post it. Tests show that this encourages some people to undo their comment and share something less hurtful instead.⁣ ⁣ Thank you to everyone working to make sure Instagram is a kind and safe place.⁣ ⁣(Art by @heysp)

A post shared by Sheryl Sandberg (@sherylsandberg) on Jul 8, 2019 at 11:55am PDT

The COO ended her post by thanking those working to make sure Instagram is a "kind and safe place".