Instagram had recently introduced a pop-up to alert users
for reconsidering their comments on posts. For this purpose, Instagram used AI
to detect potentially offensive or abusive comments.
According to Instagram, the result of the prompt was
positive and now the platform is expanding the same prompt for picture
captions.
“Today, when someone writes a caption for a feed post, and
our AI detects the caption as potentially offensive, they will receive a prompt
informing them that their caption is similar to those reported for bullying.
They will have the opportunity to edit their caption before it’s posted.",
described Instagram.
This means that Instagram will not alert the user that the caption might be offensive but also notify the user that a similar caption has previously
been reported by others on the site.
This prompt won’t stop people from posting the intended
caption but it will give users a moment to reconsider by thinking about the
affects it might have.
Instagram does not clearly state how their measures to
prevent bullying have helped in the past but in a report, it did say:
“Content
actioned increased from 2.5 million pieces of content in Q2 2019 to 3.2 million
in Q3 2019, as we strengthened our enforcement of our policy on bullying and
harassment."
This is not the only effort Instagram
has made for the betterment of the mental health of its users, its attempt to
hide total likes count and introducing options like ‘restrict’ is an example
of such measures.
What we can learn from this is
that Instagram prioritizes the safety of its users allowing them to express
themselves safely.
The new prompt will be introduced
to users in selected countries for now but gradually become available worldwide
in a few months.
