Cyberbullying, shade, and trolling are all real when we log on to any social network—whether it’s discouraging Leslie Jones from Twitter, overflowing the comment section of Taylor Swift’s Instagram, or heated exchanges between presidential candidates. “Keep it cute, or put it on mute” hasn’t been a widespread thing. Instagram has decided to change that with filtering updates, allowing users to mute comments they don’t find the least bit cute.
Instagram alerted the Washington Post of the upcoming features. The company itself has a filtering system based on its own guidelines that it applies to posts and comments. The new feature, however, gives that power to users, as well and allows their personal judgement a role. The update will go beyond being able to delete comment by comment, what users can already do. Its filtering will apply to greater masses of comments. In addition, users can turn off the ability to comment for each post.
Profiles with large followings—celebrities, public figures, and businesses—will gain access first. Nicky Jackson Colaco of Instagram said, “We have slowly begun to offer accounts with high volume comment threads the option to moderate their comment experience. As we learn, we look forward to improving the comment experience for our broader community.”
