Instagram Hopes To Improve User Safety With New Comments Update

Instagram rolled out a new update last week that hopes to improve user safety and protect against abusive comments online.

Having originally started Instagram as a “welcoming community” for those wishing to share their lives through images, Instagram rates user safety high on its list of priorities.

And so last week, the app introduced its latest “Keyword Moderation Tool”, which lets users choose keywords they deem offensive or upsetting, to help the app hide any rude or abusive comments .

Instagram CEO & co-founder Kevin Systrom said: “We know tools aren’t the only solution for this complex problem, but together, we can work towards keeping Instagram a safe place for self-expression.

“My commitment to you is that we will keep building features that safeguard the community and maintain what makes Instagram a positive and creative place for everyone.”

The keyword feature is available on user profiles under settings, where there is now an option called “Comments”.

All users have to do is activate the setting by swiping the slider and input their own (or choose from Instagram’s pre-collated lists) of keywords they want to be used to hide abusive comment.

This feature comes just shortly after the app brought in the option of swiping on comments to delete them, or report and block users who posted them.

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