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Instagram introduces automatic blocking of offensive comments

By Kaloyan C.

Updated: Jun 29, 2017, 9:11 AM

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Instagram introduces automatic blocking of offensive comments

Instagram isn't as infamous for its toxic user base as other social media services are (looking at you, Twitter), but just like pretty much every online community out there, there exists a specific subset of its users that take advantage of the relative anonymity to abuse others. To combat this problem, Instagram has just launched a new feature: automatic blocking of offensive comments.

The filter will work both in posts and live video, and will block comments it finds abusive or offensive. Together with it, a new spam filter is also being introduced, and both of them will be powered by machine learning, which also explains why the company didn't elaborate on what it finds offensive.

But while the offensive comment filter will initially only be available in English, the spam filter will also work in eight additional languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, French, German, Russian, Japanese and Chinese. Since Instagram specifically mentions that the algorithms will "improve over time," expect them to be a little rough around the edges. But if you'd rather not trust a computer's judgement on what is and isn't offensive, the feature can optionally be disabled in the app's settings.

source: Instagram