Instagram's Newest Feature To Help Reduce Online Harassment

Harassing someone online has become a trend these days. In line with this, the photo sharing app, Instagram will soon allow its users to turn off or filter comments they see on their posts. This will be their way of helping reduce online harassment.

Instagram is one of the most popular and widely used smartphone app right now. The app continues to improve by adding another update which will mainly promote anti-harassment and reduce the incidence of cyberbullying.

Just recently, Ghostbusters Star, Leslie Jones left Twitter after she was attacked with racist comments and called out Twitter for not having guidelines on preventing online harassment. Twitter then suspended the account of right-wing writer Milo Yiannopoulos, who reportedly headed the coordinated attack. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admitted that Twitter has not "been good enough" at handling online harassment, Time reported.

According to ibtimes.co.uk, the advancement of technology and the influence of social media can start a chain reaction of cyberbullying. This trend has alarmed people behind Instagram leading them to create an update for anti-harassment online.

Our goal is to make Instagram a friendly, fun and, most importantly, safe place for self-expression," Nicky Jackson Colaco, Instagram's head of public policy, said in a statement to the Washington Post. "We have slowly begun to offer accounts with high volume content threads the option to moderate their comment experience. As we learn, we look forward to improving the comment experience for our broader community."

This might be the Instagram feature that was rumored to be used by Taylor Swift during her feud with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West last week. The Washington Post tried to get Instagram to comment, however they declined to do so. But, as what Colaco said in his statement, the firm has been testing out the update on prominent accounts before it's released.

High profile accounts will also be the first to get a hold of the feature when it goes live in the coming weeks. This will give Instagram the most important feedback in a short time. Other users will see changes to their comments in the coming months.

Instagram will also let users decide to switch off comments on their accounts according to a post. This feature will reach high-volume accounts first, but people behind Instagram believe it can reach more accounts in the near future.