Instagram Plans To Curb Targeted Harassment With ‘Limits’

Photo sharing app Instagram is now testing a new feature called 'Limits' with the aim to curb targeted harassment. The new feature will allow users to lock their accounts and limit any potential interactions when they feel they're the target of harassment.

Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, while introducing the tool referenced the recent Euro 2020 final, which saw three Blacks players on the English National team face a flood of harassment after England lost to Italy when the match went to a penalty shootout.

Mosseri said in a video he shared on Thursday that "Racism and hate speech has no place on Instagram, it is not only honestly f**ked up to see people treated that way, but it breaks how Instagram works.”

In trying to curb harassment on the platform, Mosseri said Instagram plans to try to reduce hate speech to “as close to zero as we possibly can.”

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Adam Mosseri (@mosseri)

However, knowing that it will likely be impossible to completely eradicate all forms of racism from the app, the company also plans to give people new tools that will allow them “to take some power back.” That’s where Limits fit in.

“We know that people sometimes are in temporary moments of real risk and pain, and we need to give them tools to protect,” Mosseri said of the feature.

Instagram is currently testing Limits in selected countries across the world ahead of the rollout. Meanwhile, Mosseri promised the company would have more to share on how it plans to tackle racism on Instagram in the coming months.