Combating aggressive Instagram users

Instagram has unveiled several innovations designed to combat aggressive behaviour on the social network. A Limits feature has been made available to users to limit the flow of negative comments and posts on days of heightened public scrutiny of their personas, social networking chief Adam Mosseri said on Wednesday night.

"To help people when they face or expect an influx of offensive comments and direct messages, we are introducing Limits: it will automatically hide comments and direct message requests from users who are not your subscribers or have only recently signed up," the social network administration explained in its official blog. Instagram points out that a significant portion of negative comments are left by users in these two categories.

Adam Mosseri adds: "Bloggers and celebrities experience a sudden increase in comments and posts in relation to some significant event for them or the community, and the increased activity is not always positive."

In addition, the app will show a "stricter warning" about a possible violation of community rules as early as the first attempt to send offensive comments, previously only appearing after two or three such instances. According to Instagram, such a measure has proven effective. Last week, the social network sent about one million such warnings every day, and in about half of the cases the message was changed or deleted altogether.

By the end of August, another feature will be available worldwide that will filter out requests for direct messages based on keywords and phrases, as well as spam. These will automatically be placed in a separate hidden folder.