Instagram’s Newest Feature Aims to Fight Online Harassment

Instagram will soon allow users to filter the comments they see on their posts—or turn comments off entirely—as a way of reducing online harassment.

High-profile accounts will be the first have access to the new feature, so that they can give Instagram feedback, and in the coming weeks it will roll out to all users, the Washington Post reports. Instagram will also let users switch off comments on a post-by-post basis.

Some have accused social media sites of not doing enough to prevent online harassment. Recently, Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones left Twitter after she was attacked with racist comments, and she called out Twitter for not enforcing guidelines on preventing online harassment. In response, Twitter suspended the account of right-wing writer Milo Yiannopoulos, who reportedly spearheaded the coordinated attack.

Since then, Jones has returned to Twitter, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admitted that Twitter has not “been good enough” at handling online harassment.

[Washington Post]