Instagram Introduces New Restrict Mode To Allow Users To Ban Bullies

Anita - Oct 09, 2019

The new “Restrict” feature on Instagram is expected to help users protect themselves from bullying on the social network

Instagram is introducing “Restrict” mode, a new feature that allows IG users to effectively shadow forbid another account to comment on images with abusive or offensive language. The mode was initially available for public testing back in July.

Users can activate this new feature for certain accounts on IG by swiping left on a comment towards your privacy settings or doing the same on a person’s account. A new blog post released on IG stated that the mode makes it so that:

As the person is not banned, users can tap on a message popping up to see the comment, like the way users do to mute replies on Twitter. Then users can approve the person’s comment, so it is available for everyone to see, ignore it or delete it. Additionally, the site is taking away notifications on the comments coming from a banned account like the current mute system of Twitter.

Instagram-restrict — "Restrict" allows IG users to effectively shadow forbid another account to comment on images with abusive or offensive language

The ability to restrict someone from commenting will have an impact on direct messages as well. Any effort to directly send a message will be put in the message request section, and there will be no notifications to be sent, as per Instagram. Users still can read the message; however, restricted users cannot see the time it is read, or whether the person restricted them is online on Instagram.

“Restrict” mode is considered an additional tool for precaution, which helps people to save themselves from bullying and harassment on this social network. Additionally, IG also lets people manage comments and block accounts. However, bullying is an issue on IG, which this company has seriously considered over the past several years. According to an article posted in The Atlantic back last autumn, teenagers who are addicted to using IG described the bullying level on the site as “constant.” The site is encouraging account owners, especially younger users, to strongly fight against bullying as well as spread the positivity with the launch of various stickers for anti-bullying, which are expected to debut in the upcoming weeks.