Instagram rolls out 'Caption Warning', its latest tool to combat online bullying

Instagram, the other social media website for sharing and uploading pictures, was also a victim of fake news circulation. Rumours spread in August that Instagram is changing its rule and that starting August, Instagram would be able to use photos of users in court cases and that everything that a user has uploaded would be public.

Instagram has launched a new feature in its continued bid to contact online bullying. The latest feature warns users when their caption may be considered offensive as per Instagram’s community guidelines. 

“Starting today, we are rolling out a new feature that notifies people when their captions on a photo or video may be considered offensive and gives them a chance to pause and reconsider their words before posting,” said Instagram. 

The Facebook-owned company has developed and tested AI that can recognise different forms of bullying. When a user types a caption for a post, the AI would detect an offensive caption. It would then prompt the user to inform them that their caption is similar to previously reported captions. Users will be given an option to edit the caption before it is posted.

Starting today, we’re rolling out a new feature that notifies people when their captions may be considered offensive, and gives them a chance to pause and reconsider their words before posting.

Learn more: https://t.co/J6etoRmznrpic.twitter.com/C4VxlZOY2i — Instagram (@instagram) December 16, 2019

The feature is being rolled out in select countries and will be expanded to other countries in the coming months.

Caption Warning is an extension to another available feature where users were notified before posting comments that may be considered offensive. “Results have been promising, and we’ve found that these types of nudges can encourage people to reconsider their words when given a chance,” read the blog post.

Another feature that Instagram rolled out earlier this year is ‘Restrict’, which limits unwanted interactions without blocking or unfollowing other users. The feature also gives a user the tool to stop other users from seeing posts or comments from the ‘restricted’ account.