Instagram launches new features to reduce online bullying

Social media giants Facebook and Instagram, today released the fifth edition of the Community Standards Enforcement report, which tracks the company's progress to keep both platforms safe. In addition to this report, Instagram also announced new safety features to lead the industry in the fight against online bullying.

"We want Instagram to be a safe place for self-expression and we're constantly looking for new and improved ways to achieve that. This edition of the Community Standards Enforcement Report highlights our progress in enforcing our policies in ten areas, including removing content that puts the safety of young people at risk, and removing bullying content. This report demonstrates improvements in how much content we proactively find and remove before it is reported to us. Additionally, we're now announcing new features that mark the continuation of our effort to lead the industry in the fight against online bullying." said, Ankhi Das, Director of Public Policy, Facebook - India, South and Central Asia.

The new feature helps people manage multiple unwanted interactions at once and to manage a rush of negative comments. The platform has tested the ability to delete comments in bulk, as well as block or restrict multiple accounts that post negative comments. Early feedback has been encouraging, and the social media apps have found that it helps people, especially with larger followings, maintain a positive environment on their account.

To enable this feature on iOS, tap on a comment and then the dotted icon in the top right corner. Select Manage Comments and choose up to 25 comments to delete at once. Tap More Options to block or restrict accounts in bulk. To block or restrict accounts on Android, press and hold on a comment, tap the dotted icon and select Block or Restrict.

In addition to removing negative comments, it's a way to give people an easy way to amplify and encourage positive interactions. Soon, the platform will begin testing Pinned Comments. This feature gives people a way to set the tone for their account and engage with their community by pinning a select number of comments to the top of their comments thread.

Tags and mentions can be used to target or bully others, so Facebook and Instagram are set out to put new controls that allow one to manage who can tag or mention you on Instagram. You can choose whether you want everyone, only people you follow or no one to be able to tag or mention you in a comment, caption or Story.

This announcement comes in addition to Instagram's ongoing efforts to engage with the youth on topics such as gender sensitivity, mental health, and bullying, which began at the start of the year with the 'Unlabel India' initiative. In partnership with Yuvaa, a youth media and insights company, this included a roadshow to colleges across the country, to inspire conversations among youth and initiate positive online dialogue.