Instagram Rolls Out 'Keyword Moderation Tool' That Will Filter Out Offensive Comments (macrumors.com)

In an effort to "promote a culture where everyone feels safe to be themselves without criticism or harassment," Instagram has introduced today a "keyword moderation tool" that anyone can use to block offensive or inappropriate words. Mac Rumors reports: Referred to as a "keyword moderation tool," the feature will let each user type in words they find to be offensive, effectively hiding any mention of them in the comment section of their posts. The comments containing the harsh language will still be available for other Instagram users, but the company believes that allowing each user to determine which words to hide from their personal collection of photos will cultivate a "positive and safe" environment. To deal with abusive accounts, Instagram already lets users swipe to delete comments, report inappropriate comments and block accounts.

Comments

Belgium

[OzPeter]

Sounds like all this will do is allow the Instagram users to wrap a virtual towel around their heads.

Re:Belgium

[Fire_Wraith]

That's a good thing though, right? I mean, what else are you supposed to do if you run into a virtual Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal?

Re:Belgium

[ganjadude]

which is the better way to go

lets face it, people are offended by stupid shit these days, and instead of reporting others because they said a word that hurt your little feelings, just....block those words from getting to you. live in your safe space bubble, and let the rest of the world act like adults in peace

Re:Belgium

[Cruciform]

And you read the Slashdot comments with no moderation?

Re:Belgium

[mwvdlee]

Post Vogon poetry on Instagram, ofcourse!

Re:Belgium

[phantomfive]

To be fair, Instagram is a place to share pictures with people who like to see them, not a place to present new theses on good government.

In other words, it's designed to be a nice warm towel room.

Re:Belgium

[serviscope_minor]

Sounds like all this will do is allow the Instagram users to wrap a virtual towel around their heads.

You say that like it's a bad thing. We all know there are idiots out there. But life is much more pleasant if you don't have to see them. It's almost like the freeze-peach advocates here seem to believe it's the god given right of idiots to turn everything with a hint of public writability into a torrent of utter shit and somehow people who don't want to listen to that are stupid or evil.

Re:Belgium

[epyT-R]

I read at -1. It's really not that bad. Here are the steps:

1. use the scroll wheel/bars to move past posts that are obvious spam (there usually aren't that many of those)
2. choose whether to moderate or participate
3. benefit from considering opinions that don't jive with groupthink. it's ok to consider ideas without accepting them or taking them personally
4. don't take the internet so seriously.

Re:Belgium

[David W. Campbell]

Better block Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings of Sussex whilst you are at it. Just to be safe.

Bubble boys and girls

[John Jorsett]

I've already noticed on other forums a tendency to construct a cocoon where nothing disagreeable gets in, but the people try to do it by driving out or shutting up anyone with a contrary opinion. This tool will allow them to create their own little universe without having to eject or muzzle the meanies who insist on saying things they don't like. Everyone can now have their own customized online "safe room".

Re:Bubble boys and girls

[Opportunist]

Oddly, though, those exact same people will have NO qualms, zero, none at all, to try to destroy their "opponents" mentally, financially and if at all possible physically.

Re:Bubble boys and girls

[Opportunist]

No, but people who dox others and send lies to their employers in an attempt to get them fired are. Or at the very least, they should be considered that.

Re:Bubble boys and girls

[ganjadude]

The findings suggest a great majority of Trump supporters hold unfavorable views of Muslims and support a policy that bans Muslims from entering the US. Most of them support proposals that stifle immigration from Mexico, and they agree with Trump’s comments that Mexican immigrants are criminals. And many — but not a majority — say that black people are less intelligent and more violent than their white peers.

the muslim and mexican thing, really isnt racist. nationalist perhaps, but not racist. As for the black folks, DOJ statistics are also not racist. I mean the findings dont support the idea that trump supporters are racist, they just show that pollsters know how to work a poll to show what they want it to show

SOME trump supporters are in fact racist, so are SOME hillary supporters, SOME johnson supporters and SOME stein supporters (if she has any left after the fact that she has an arrest warrant out for her)

wanting to protect the borders however is in no way racist no matter how hard some people try and make it out to be so

Re: Bubble boys and girls

[BlytheBowman]

And this is why millenials are such pansies"oh no, someone hurt my wittle fewlings!" Millenials need to grow the fuck up, and realize the world is a nasty place, and you can't jump down a hidey-hole everytime something you don't like happens (I grew up in the 1980s and I am transgender to boot! There were no "safe spaces" back then)

Re:Bubble boys and girls

[elrous0]

Snowflakes are very fragile and melt easily. They must be carefully protected to ensure that they're never exposed to anyone who might do something offensive or abusive, like disagreeing with them.

Re:Bubble boys and girls

[elrous0]

the muslim and mexican thing, really isnt racist. nationalist perhaps, but not racist.

Haven't you heard? In modern SJW world, nationalism *IS* racism.

Re:Bubble boys and girls

[ultranova]

There's actually a Change.org petition demanding Instagram give all users the ability to disable comments "to stop bullying." I've considered finding the user's Instagram and creating several sock puppet accounts, then using them to post content (with comments disabled) bullying the user, with no recourse to defend themselves.

So basically your plan to shut up someone asking for anti-bully feature on Instagram is to give them plenty of examples of bullying conveniently located where Instagram not only sees them but also cannot avoid taking a position.

I can get past libel by just heavily-criticizing them on factual things--like their idiotic demands to restrict people's speech and give them no recourse to comment on images which assault their character.

You're going to get past libel because nobody cares how buthurt a pseudonymous Instagram account is about another such account's feature requests.

Also, they have the recourse of telling Instagram a stalker is making sock puppet accounts for the sole purpose of attacking them. Instagram, not being the government, can then completely ignore how carefully you skirted the edge of law and simply permaban you. Or, if they're feeling nasty, sue you for using their system in breach of the user agreement, which forbids harassment.

But, hey, who knows? Maybe companies forcing good behaviour online for business reasons will end up teaching the next generation to debate without resolting to volume or insults, thus saving our democracies. It's a longshot, but any port in a storm.

Re:Bubble boys and girls

[ganjadude]

well yeah, because thought police. I didnt spin anything, i found fault with your previous poll and thats all i was going off of. I really dont care if some fringe number of people who are actually racist agree with me on some things, nore should anyone the entire concept of groupthink, everyone who agrees with X must also agree with Y is completely insane.

Some people would argue that BLM is a racist group, yet they get major love from their chosen side. All I can do is worry about me not being an asshole.

as for your new link, again you are wrong

Our new poll finds that Trump is benefiting from a GOP electorate that thinks Barack Obama is a Muslim and was born in another country, and that immigrant children should be deported. 66% of Trump's supporters believe that Obama is a Muslim to just 12% that grant he's a Christian. 61% think Obama was not born in the United States to only 21% who accept that he was. And 63% want to amend the Constitution to eliminate birthright citizenship, to only 20% who want to keep things the way they are.

NONE of any of what this poll is asking says ANYTHING about race! its about religion! i mean do you even know what the word means??? or like most americans does it simply means "things i dont like " these days???

2 up, 2 shot down, have a nice dat

Ah, "inappropriate" words...

[argStyopa]

...like Niggardly? ...or Pussy (as in pusillanimous)?

Because nobody's ever figured out how to get around filters before.

Re:Ah, "inappropriate" words...

[Cro Magnon]

I remember one website that wouldn't let us talk about the Vice President, **** Cheny.

I don't really see an issue

[sunking2]

It's instagram. The idea is for 99% of people to post garbage pictures of themselves for fun. It's not about learning some life lesson about dealing with a world full of anonymous assholes who now can say what they want without looking someone in the face to do so.

I'm pussytive

[Buchenskjoll]

I can compile my own dicktionary. Please cuntinue the good work.

I'm all for this concept

[GatorSnake]

While I am in the camp of those who would never filter out anything, I am not offended easily, I see this as the best possible solution to let those who find certain words or concepts "offensive" to opt out and stop trying to force their values on the rest of us. Putting the onus on the individual rather than the company to decide what she/he sees has to be the way forward if we are going to protect freedom of expression.

While I agree this may cause "bubble" syndrome and allow for self-imposed isolation of various groups from each other, I think it could also provide some interesting life lessons. Think of a person who does a heavy self-censor without realizing the consequences, then hearing from friends that she missed out on a fun post because of it. Might cause people to start to question why they don't want to hear certain things or think certain thoughts.

I can see the next big celebrity/athlete protest of intentionally using hashtags of broadly censored words just to draw attention to the fact that people shouldn't hide from realities they may disagree with or find scary.

Re:Well, Frack

[Opportunist]

Pretty much this.

Humans have been quite inventive, during the ages, at coming up with substitutes for taboo words. It's still possible to insult someone as long as everyone involved knows what's meant. "You N-Word" will simply be the new racist slur, everyone knows what's meant, and as a "bonus" the racist even gets to mock the politically correctness.

Slashdot

[Errol backfiring]

If we do this for slashdot, I expect the flameword list to contain the following words within an hour:

• Microsoft
• Apple
• Republican
• Democrat
• Climate change
• Systemd
• IoT
• cow
• moo

I think it would get very quiet here...