Instagram cracks down on trolls by hiding abusive comments from users
Instagram is cracking down on trolls who post sexist and racist abuse by automatically blocking vile comments before they are seen by other users.
The photo sharing app has spent months training a machine learning algorithm to spot the most offensive comments and will start using it on Thursday.
The algorithm will read every comment posted on Instagram and hide them if they are deemed abusive. The comments will still be visible to the person who wrote them, but will be hidden to other users.
Instagram, like many social networks, has struggled to contain online trolls who target celebrities and vulnerable individuals with hateful comments. It has been under pressure to tackle the problem.
The algorithm is designed to stop abuse before anybody sees it, instead of users having to retroactively report them to moderators.
Michelle Napchan, Instagram’s head of public policy for EMEA, said the algorithm has been trained using 2 million comments since February. Human reviewers “taught” the program by marking them as offensive or not offensive, with the software learning to determine what was inappropriate.
It will assess the relationship between a photo’s poster and the commenter, by seeing if they are friends and how often they interact, to interpret comments.
Napchan said the algorithm will continue to improve over time, and that the rate of false positives – inoffensive comments that the algorithm flagged as abusive – was less than 1 per cent. “We know its going to be hard to do, its not going to be perfect right at the start,” she said.
The update will be introduced to users who have English set as their default language on Thursday, and Instagram hopes to expand it to more languages. Users will notice little difference: those targeted by abuse will have no indication that there are hidden comments on their photo, and those who post the abuse will still see it as normal.
Napchan said abusers will not know their comments have been blocked so that they cannot learn how to “game the system”.
“Instagram has always been a platform that really understood its appeal and sense of community, and we’re proud that people can express themselves freely and openly. We’re shocked by the rise in bullying and harassment across the internet and social media platforms,” she said, adding that it was a “tiny minority” of comments that were abusive.
She said Instagram hoped that users would feel free to be more expressive and open if trolls’ comments were significantly reduced.
The app has made previous efforts to counter abuse. Last year it allowed users to block certain words and emojis on comments, and allowed users to simply turn off comments on their photos.
