Photo credit: Getty / Alexander Koerner
Instagram announced July 8 that it will be releasing two new features to combat cyber bullying based on a deep understanding of how people bully each other.
The first feature will be the ability to shadow or “ghost” ban individual followers or accounts. The feature lets the user restrict any account so that their comments will not be seen by anyone except each other. In other words, this will allow you to approve or decline comments from that person before anyone sees it.
The second feature is supposed to come at the situation from the other end by flagging comments that “may be considered offensive”. In these cases, users will be asked “Are you sure you want to post this?”-while adding an option to “undo” their comment. The goal overall is to encourage people to reconsider their comment and “share something less hurtful.”
“We can do more to prevent bullying from happening on Instagram, and we can do more to empower the targets of bullying to stand up for themselves,” said Instagram head Adam Mosseri.
