Instagram has set to work to remove harmful content. They have made it known through a statement on their official website, where they describe the steps with which they plan to reduce potentially harmful content on their platform.
The statement lets it be known that the social network will put all the power of its famous algorithm at the service of users; In this way, they seek to deprioritize publications that could contain “bullying, hateful language or that could incite violence“. In addition, it seeks to create “more transparency about how Instagram works”.
In addition to removing content that goes against our Community Guidelines; we are now cracking down on posts that may contain harassment or hate speech; or that may encourage violence by displaying them further down in Feed and Stories.
Instagram.com
Instagram will hide content that may be harmful to you
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash Instagram has already been in charge of prohibiting this type of content since previous years. However, this change will serve to detect posts that are in a “gray area“; in other words: those that have not reached the moderators for review.
The app was already able to hide potentially harmful content from its 'Explore' tab; however, users who followed the owners of these publications were exposed to these types of posts. Thanks to these new changes, Instagram will make this content less visible even to the followers of these accounts.
In previous versions, the content that disappeared was the one you reported as spam, but with this policy you don't have to lift a finger. Now, the algorithm will study your actions to anticipate and hide all those posts that may offend your sensitivities and that you would probably mark as inappropriate yourself.
Of course, this measure can always be taken to extremes, and could end up hiding or blocking content that doesn't deserve it. Using automatic algorithms is quite difficult in a world where jargons change every day; however, it is good to know that Instagram is interested in improving and debugging its application. Fortunately, this new change only affects posts and not entire accounts, so you don't have to worry.
