News24
22 Apr 2021, 23:43 GMT+10
Instagram on Wednesday started offering users the option to filter incoming direct message requests for hurtful language, a step aimed at showing the Facebook-owned social network is serious about reducing online harassment.
"Because DMs are private conversations, we don't proactively look for hate speech or bullying the same way we do elsewhere," Instagram said in a blog post.
But requests to open new private chats are "where people usually receive abusive messages," it added.
Running on the user's device to preserve privacy, rather than Instagram's servers, the new filters will block requests to open a direct messaging conversation that contains offensive words, expressions or emojis.
As well as a set of pre-defined filters, users will be able to add their own terms to their personal block list, just as they already can for comments on their posts.
At first, users in seven countries - Britain, France, Ireland, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada - will be given the option, with more to follow "over the next few months".
"These are the countries where public figures, especially football players, have been victims of abuse and offensive language in direct messages," Instagram public policy manager in France Clotilde Briend told AFP.
"Most hate speech comes in these direct message requests. We'll give everyone the option of reporting these messages to us, or not," she added.
Facebook is also considering rolling the filter out to its other chat properties, Messenger and WhatsApp, Briend said.
With more than one billion users, Instagram has like other social networks spent years trying to fight harassment, hate speech, and disinformation.
In 2019, it set up artificial intelligence-based warnings to people trying to post insulting messages, and recently said it would use machine learning to work out users' real age.
In March, it confirmed it would push ahead with a version of the platform geared for pre-teens, as the existing platform bans under-13s.
Childrens' groups and rights advocates from around the world have called on Facebook to drop the plans.
Get a daily dose of Cincinnati Sun news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Cincinnati Sun.
More InformationBRUSSELS, Belgium: Meta is holding firm on its controversial pay-or-consent model, a move that could lead to fresh antitrust charges...
LONDON, U.K.: American consumers and businesses could soon face the highest overall tariff burden in more than a century, according...
The family of Sayfollah Saif Musallet, a 20-year-old American citizen who was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the occupied West...
CONCORD, New Hampshire: A federal judge in New Hampshire issued a crucial ruling on July 10 against President Donald Trump's executive...
DUBAI, U.A.E.: A cargo ship flagged under Liberia, known as the Eternity C, sank in the Red Sea following an attack executed by Yemen's...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: The Trump administration has started sending some weapons to Ukraine again, just a week after the Pentagon told officials...
NEW YORK CITY, New York: Bitcoin surged to a new all-time high this week, buoyed by growing institutional interest and a wave of pro-crypto...
SHENZHEN, China: As global chip competition intensifies, Huawei Technologies is exploring new markets in the Middle East and Southeast...
LONDON/NEW YORK CITY: American grocery bills may be headed higher as coffee and orange juice prices face upward pressure from new tariffs...
BATTLE CREEK, Michigan: In a major consolidation of iconic food brands, WK Kellogg has agreed to be acquired by the owner of Ferrero...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: Filmmaker Peter Jackson's lifelong fascination with the extinct giant New Zealand flightless bird called the moa...
NEW DELHI, India: India has submitted a revised proposal to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva to implement retaliatory tariffs...