Three innovations introduced to prevent hatred and racism on Instagram after UEFA's EURO 2020 championship sees spike in racist speech

Last week innovations were introduced by Facebook for its Instagram social media platform that make it possible to prevent users being bothered by inappropriate comments or messages, an effort to prevent hatred and racism from spreading on social media. The first new option is for Instagram users to be able to limit comments and DM requests, the second is a more distinct warning to users who attempt to send inappropriate comments, and the third is the Hidden Words function, which filters out inappropriate DM requests and has been expanded globally. 

"Our responsibility is to make sure all who use Instagram feel safe there. We will not tolerate any hateful messages or bullying and we will remove such messages whenever we find them," the company said in a statement.  

The option to limit comments and DM requests can be turned on in the privacy settings of smartphones and automatically hides comments and DM requests sent by people who either do not follow your Instagram profile or have just followed it for a short time. According to the company, that option was available to all Instagram users worldwide as of last Wednesday (11 August). 

Research conducted by the company reportedly found that those who write inappropriate comments to Instagram users are mainly people who are not followers of their profiles or have followed them for just a short time. "We recorded such cases after the EURO 2020 finals, which resulted in a significant increase in racism towards some players," the company explained. 

More prominent warnings about inappropriate comments will now be displayed to the senders of such messages. If the Instagram user who has been warned decides to send the comment anyway, it is possible that it will be either deleted or hidden. 

The Hidden Words function currently has an expanded list of insulting emoticons, hashtags and words. Such content is automatically filtered. 

Instagram users are also newly able to hide comments with content they believe to be inappropriate even if it does not break the rules for using the service. That function can be controlled in the Comments section of the privacy settings on smartphones.