Instagram To Roll Out New Rules To Remove Accounts Posting Violent Content

On Thursday, Instagram said that it’s launching changes to what way it chooses accounts to take down, which suggests that the company is becoming stricter in deleting offensive content violating its rules.

In particular, it will begin deleting accounts which violate the rules for a number of times within a certain period. For now, the company removes accounts if they have violated its rules in a certain proportion of content.

According to a spokeswoman from Instagram, the company will not reveal the specific number of violations as well as the time frame to avoid users gaming the system. The firm said in a blog post:

Instagram announced this news in the same week when a murder suspect posted a photo of his victim’s dead body on the platform. The company then removed the picture and his account; however, the photos’ copy was reposted on the Internet, raising concerns over social platforms’ content moderation. Instagram was also criticized for lack of efforts in combating bullying as well as protecting teens from self-harm images.

Facebook and Instagram are also accused of suppressing conservative voices. But Instagram’s parent company denied the allegations.

Instagram stated that it will let users know if their accounts are at risk of removal and a way of appealing its decision. Users can appeal the decision if their content gets removed due to violations of the platform’s rules against pornography and nudity. Harassment and bullying, counter-terrorism, drug sales, and hate speech.

The photo-sharing app also said that in the coming months, it will expand appeals. The company is will also provide users with a way to directly submit appeals fright in the app. Right now, they have to enter the help center of the website.

In case a user’s content violates its policies on sexual solicitation or drug sale, the account will get removed at once.