Instagram vs. Cyberbullying
In a day and age where many individuals are becoming increasingly addicted to social media, there aren’t many of us who can go without checking our Instagram feeds every other day or so. Social media may be the ultimate form of communication, connecting families and friends from across the globe but it isn’t as pretty as it seems. Facebook Inc., the company who owns Instagram has been strategising and attempting to come up with solutions that can effectively combat individuals from being harassed.
Cyberbullying is an ever-growing issue that exists in all social media apps. Sites such as Instagram are seen as the perfect platform to manipulate and harass people due to its popularity amongst younger people. Being harassed continuously can lead to individuals developing feelings of uneasiness, even escalating as far as suicidal thoughts and self-hate. However, with over a billion people using Instagram each month, it’s nearly impossible for the community to keep track of accounts that violate its terms and conditions .

Cyberbullying is directly linked to individuals experiencing feelings of anxiety, depression and even suicidal thoughts.
Instagram has developed various machine learning algorithms that make it easier for the staff to deal with instances of cyberbullying. To take it a step further, they integrated machine learning algorithms capable of identifying comments that can be deemed as harassment and deleting them appropriately. The company achieved this by having staff flag photos as bullying or not bullying, allowing the AI to develop an idea of what content can be deemed as offensive. The AI was trained to identify these types of posts/comments and take them down accordingly.
However, the social media giant doesn’t plan on stopping there. Two new features are currently being developed in order to combat cyberbullying to a more accurate degree. One of them being a more advanced form of the AI that scans posts for offensive content but instead focused specifically for comments. This will prevent someone from commenting inappropriate things on anyone’s post, alerting the individual that there is something wrong with their comment. The second idea is a ‘restrict’ feature which has already been implemented. The idea is rather than blocking someone, it would stop someone from commenting on your post unless they have approval and content that you do not want other people to see will be filtered.
It’s interesting to see the approach and measures Instagram is taking in order to tackle the cyberbullying problem the platform is facing. With a younger demographic being the app’s fastest growing user base, it means that the company should implement security and safety measures in order to ensure an individual’s experience on the app and most importantly, their well-being.