Instagram is a place for users to come together and express themselves through pictures and minute-long videos. But unfortunately, it is not a safe place as the case with any public platform. If you’ve spent any great deal of time on the internet, you’re probably aware that harassment is a major problem. Unwanted contact, trolling, cyberbullying, and even threats of rape and death have become the unfortunate norm on Instagram and other public platforms. Luckily, though, Instagram isn’t standing for that.

On Tuesday, Instagram, the Facebook-owned photo-sharing app for smartphones, introduced 3 new features aimed at combatting cyberbullying and other forms of internet mistreatment. Three new tools — the ability to disable comments, the ability to “like” comments, and the ability to remove followers from private accounts — follow on the heels of a filter that lets users hide comments by keyword.

These new features give users the resources to become the gatekeepers of their own accounts, and to filter their user experience so that they can either have public accounts without leaving the door open to negativity or even private accounts with even more control over who has access to their photos.

This is what you need to know about the new features:

1. Like Comments


Now Instagram users can tap on a heart icon to like comments that find funny, poignant or uplifting. This follows the feature which enables users to filter comments based on keywords. Instagram hopes that by implementing this new feature, users will put their efforts towards spreading positivity.

2. Turn off commenting


This is my favourite from the new features. Since I have seen firsthand what cyberbullying can do and Comments are where the majority of conversation happens on Instagram. Arguably the most visible feature is the ability to ‘turn off’ commenting. By navigating to the Instagram app’s Advanced Settings menu and toggling the “Turn Off Commenting” button, Instagram users will be able to prevent followers from commenting on current and future photos. If you change your mind, you can turn commenting back on at any time, the feature is super flexible.

The functionality, which was previously available to a small number of high-profile accounts, will be rolled out to everyone in the coming weeks.

3. Follower removal
If you have a private account, you know that the only way to remove someone who you already accepted as a follower is to block them. Now, you can edit your follower list without blocking someone — and the best part is, they won’t receive a notification that you’ve removed them from your follower list. It’s a discrete way to keep your account private.

Created at 2016-12-07 23:35:21