Instagram Announces Tougher Hate Speech Monitoring for Direct Messages

Instagram has announced it's toughening its rules on hate speech directed at individual users through their messaging system.  

In a blog post, the Facebook-owned company said they've seen an uptick of hate speech in people's Direct Messages (DMs) and they admit these types of hate messages are harder to address than the comments section of an image posted to the social media platform. 

Instagram said their rules against hate speech "don't tolerate attacks on people based on their protected characteristics, including race or religion."

The company has also developed tools to find hate speech faster. "Between July and September of last year, we took action on 6.5 million pieces of hate speech on Instagram, including in DMs, 95% of which we found before anyone reported it," the blog post said. 

The social media platform said there will also be stricter penalties for people who send abusive messages to others. Right now, if someone sends a DM that breaks Instagram's rules, they freeze that person's ability to send messages for a period of time. If that person continues sending violating messages after the freeze is lifted, their account will be disabled. 

The company said they'll also disable accounts of people who try to maneuver around these messaging restrictions and will also disable any accounts created to just sent abusive messages.

In addition, Instagram announced a number of tools people can use to protect themselves.  These include comment filters to prevent others from leaving offensive comments that use words, phrases, or emojis they don't want to see. 

The company said they're "committed to doing everything we can to fight hate and racism on our platform, but we also know these problems are bigger than us."

Instagram's update to their hate speech policy comes from several instances in the United Kingdom where soccer stars were sent racist messages on the platform after losing a match, according to the tech website theverge.com. 

Prince William, who serves as president of England's Football Association, tweeted last month after the incident was reported saying saying "racist abuse - whether on the pitch, in the stands, or on social media - is despicable and it must stop now."

Racist abuse - whether on the pitch, in the stands, or on social media - is despicable and it must stop now. (1/3)

— The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) January 31, 2021

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