Instagram announced new changes to its platform that are meant to automatically hide all types of “sensitive content” from its users who will only be able to view it by explicitly acknowledging that what they’re accessing might be disturbing or offensive in nature. In an announcement published on Thursday, the company’s co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Kevin Systrom said the new change is an extension of the firm’s initiative to keep its online community safe and accessible to everyone, regardless of their age and personal preferences. Systrom’s comment was likely referring to the option of hiding inappropriate comments that the Facebook-owned platform introduced last fall.
Regarding the new change, Instagram users will soon start seeing blurred content that the platform deemed sensitive. While the content will still be available for viewing like anything else posted on Instagram, the extra step that users will have to take to do so was likely put in place to make the vanilla experience of Instagram more neutral. Systrom noted that the content Instagram decides to blur doesn’t violate its community guidelines but was manually reported by someone and the company’s review team subsequently agreed that it’s sensitive in nature. The wording of the announcement suggests that the Facebook-owned social media service won’t automatically hide any content and has instead opted for an entirely manual process, thus minimizing the chances of false positives. Users who’ll want to view any sensitive content will only have to tap on the blurred screen to reveal it, meaning the change shouldn’t inconvenience people who aren’t troubled by the idea of being disturbed or offended. The change outlined above will be live for all users in the coming weeks.
In addition to the new content-blurring feature, Instagram announced that its two-factor authentication is now available to everyone. Finally, Facebook’s social media platform also launched a new website hosting a number of resources that can help people get familiar with ways in which they can stay safe on Instagram and get in touch with the company’s support services. Refer to the gallery below to see some screenshots of Instagram’s latest additions.
