New “tools” against online bullying
Social media is an important source of human interaction, especially for young people. It is part of their way of having fun and communicating with their peers. Especially through Instagram, they share their moments and their feelings for others. However, there is also a more serious side to Instagram. It’s not just about having fun. Around 42% of online bullying incidents take place on the platform. In order to deal with this problem and to protect the users from online abuse, the people who manage the platform came up with two features to reduce cyber bullying through this social network.
Rethink
The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, is responsible for revealing these two tools. Rethink, the first tool, will apply artificial intelligence to identify and classify comments. On comments classified as offensive, the tool will give suggestions on how they can be handled.
A message will appear to the user who mentions it: “Are you sure you want to post this?”. This way the user can reconsider their action. Tests have shown that a notification like this can encourage that user to take back their comment and replace it with a less harmful one.
However, because Rethink cannot block everyone, it will be coupled with a separate tool that helps filter harassing posts. Mosseri says this allows the victims of online bullying to report abusers without being targeted again.
Restrict
The “Restrict” tool enables you to block the person who makes such comments without them knowing.
Users who are in the “Restricted Mode” will continue to be able to see posts from their target. However, they won’t know if the people they targeted just checked their account or not. Comments which are considered malicious by their recipients will end up being two of three things: visible to everyone, deleted by the recipient, or only visible to the sender and his target. On top of that, they’ll be able to choose whether or not they want to see the comment in question. In order to see it, they’ll have to tap on a “sensitive screen” tab and agree that they are able to read the comment
Users who are “restricted” and send messages to their “target” will see that they have a new message in their inbox but the person who is being targeted will not receive any notifications from this action. The content will automatically be categorized as spam and the user will have to reset it from this restriction state if they want to read it.
“It is our responsibility to create a safe environment on instagram” says Adam Mosseri and concludes: “it’s a key priority for us to protect the user and encourage them to confront the attacker and therefore, we are constantly investing in understanding and addressing such issues.”
What is your opinion? How much effective are the new “tools” against online bullying?
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Author: PC-GR
The World of Technology
