Instagram follows Twitter and introduces filter for abusive comments

Business accounts on Instagram will now be able to stop offensive comments from appearing under their posts

(THOMAS COEX/AFP/GettyImages)

Comments sections on public social media posts can be busy, messy, and even offensive places but Instagram has announced it’s going to try and clean things up slightly by giving business accounts the ability to moderate comments on their posts.

Any Instagram pages that make use of the platform’s recently introduced business profiles will now have the ability to switch on the Comment Moderation tool.

The feature seems to be similar to Twitter’s notification quality filter for its Verified users in terms of its simplicity and reliance on filtering. Once they switch it on, the account user won’t have to do anything themselves as the tool simply relies on picking up words and phrases that have been repeatedly reported as offensive and stops comments containing them from appearing on posts.

Instagram already moderates the use of certain hashtags but something that tackles its comments sections has been sorely needed.

Thanks to its focus on visual engagement and the feeling of relative anonymity that comes from being just one comment among thousands being made at once, the comments on Instagram posts from celebrities and brands can become filled with spam and offensive language very quickly, making genuine and useful comments a chore to find.

As basic as it is, this feature gives popular pages the ability to create comments sections that are actually worth reading, both for them and others. When it comes to cultivating a positive comments section generally something like this is better than absolutely nothing at all.

According to TechCrunch the tool is available for business users now. We have contacted Instagram to ask if they intend to roll the feature out to its wider user base should it prove to be popular and will update should they respond.