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Instagram’s new filter is to Taylor Swift’s account what Saint Patrick was to fifth century Ireland
Credit: Instagram
There’s likely very little that you share in common with Taylor Swift, Kylie Jenner and Chrissy Teigen, perhaps besides a fondness for mac and cheese (at a stretch).
That all changes today with the introduction of a keyword moderation tool enabling all Instagram users to moderate their comments in much the same way that the aforementioned celebrities have taken advantage of over the past few months. The new feature, made available with the app’s latest update, allows users to toggle on a ‘Hide Inappropriate Comments’ switch that will hide a default list of words deemed inappropriate by Instagram. If you want to be hyper vigilant, you can also enter your own list of words that you don’t want to see, à la Teigen, who in the past has filtered the trigger words ‘Trump’ and ‘colon’ from her feed.
While the feature doesn’t allow you to entirely disable garbage comments just yet (as Jenner has reportedly done in the past), it’s a small step toward creating what Instagram co-founder and CEO Kevin Systrom called “a culture where everyone feels safe to be themselves without criticism or harassment.”
The new feature is undoubtedly an important one, particularly in light of recent high-profile events where individuals like model Sofia Richie, Rachel Roy, Justin Bieber and comedian and actor Leslie Jones have been subject to abhorrent harassment and hate speech online, particularly on platforms like Twitter where only recently notification and ‘quality filters’ were introduced to limit users’ exposure to duplicate or automatically generated content from unknown users.
“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,” continued Systrom in an Instagram blog post announcing the changes.
“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.”
Tile image: Instagram
Cover image: Instagram
