On October 6, 2020, Instagram announced a new security feature that is planned to be released in their upcoming update. Instagram believes that “comment warnings” will reduce the number of cyberbullies with this new update. This feature automatically blocks certain negative comments on posts. 

Before Instagram publishes someone’s negative comments on a user's posts, a pop-up message will appear that reads: “This may go against our guidelines.” But if a user still decides to comment, Instagram will hide the comment and decide whether or not to delete their account. "These new warnings let people take a moment to step back and reflect on their words and lay out the potential consequences should they proceed," Instagram said in the report. The company has not yet announced what kind of language or comment would be getting hidden. 

Instagram already deletes comments that praise organized crime and threaten physical harm. As Instagram hopes to minimize inappropriate comments, Facebook has been criticized this year for the way it handles hate speech. People say that Facebook has not done enough to delete posts about misleading information, such as vaccine misinformation, white supremacy, and violent terrorist posts. As Facebook announced they plan to keep hate-speech off their platform, they have deleted more than 22 million comments and posts. So before you think about leaving a hateful comment, you should think before you post. 

By Jacob Kim