Instagram tests new feature 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.

San Francisco: With an aim to curb targeted harassment, Facebook-owned Instagram is now testing a new feature called “Limits”.

The new feature will allow users to lock their accounts and limit any potential interactions when they feel they’re the target of harassment.

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“Racism and hate speech has no place on Instagram,” Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, was quoted as saying by Engadget on Thursday.

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”.

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’ fits in, the report said.

“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.

Ahead of wide rollout, Instagram is currently testing Limits in select countries across the world.

In the meantime, Mosseri promised the company would have more to share on how it plans to tackle racism on Instagram in the coming months.