Instagram to De-prioritise Feeds, Stories With Harmful Content

San Francisco: Instagram, which is owned by Meta, has taken new steps to make "possibly hazardous" content less accessible in its app.

According to Engadget, the firm said that the algorithm that determines how posts are placed in users' feeds and stories will now de-prioritize content that "may involve bullying, hate speech, or promote violence."

While many of these types of postings are already prohibited by Instagram's guidelines, the update may affect borderline posts or content that hasn't yet reached the app's administrators.

The company explained in an update: "To understand if something may break our rules, we’ll look at things like if a caption is similar to a caption that previously broke our rules."

Until now, Instagram has sought to hide potentially offensive information from public-facing areas of the programme, such as Explore, but it hasn't changed how it looks to those who follow the accounts that are posting it.

As a result of the latest update, posts that are deemed "similar" to those that were previously removed will be significantly less visible, even to followers.

Also Read: Microsoft Now Owns Call of Duty Maker Activision Blizzard

If a post violates Meta's community guidelines, a spokesman acknowledged that "potentially dangerous" posts may still be removed.

Instagram made a similar shift in 2020 when it began de-ranking accounts that provided false information that was later debunked by fact-checkers.

In contrast to that move, Instagram stated that the new policy will only affect individual postings and "not accounts as a whole."