Instagram Rolls Out AI Feature That Will Detect Offensive Captions

Instagram says it will begin to issue warnings to users whose captions are considered offensive.

The photo-sharing app says it has trained an artificial intelligence system to detect offensive captions. Instead of instantly flagging such cations or post down, the Facebook owned company wants users to pause and reconsider their words.

In a blog post on Monday, the app announced that the new feature will begin rolling out to select countries before extending globally to other countries. The idea is to limit bullying. So instead of taking down the post or image, the user will be notified that their caption is similar to posts that have been reported for bullying. “As part of our long-term commitment to lead the fight against online bullying, we’ve developed and tested AI that can recognise different forms of bullying on Instagram,” the app said.

Starting today, we’re rolling out a new feature that notifies people when their captions may be considered offensive, and gives them a chance to pause and reconsider their words before posting.

Learn more: https://t.co/J6etoRmznr pic.twitter.com/C4VxlZOY2i

— Instagram (@instagram) December 16, 2019

Online bullying has become a prevalent issue since the rise on internet use. For platforms like Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and other forums, online bullying is a major challenge facing young people. Many people have called on social networks to put more resources into policing the comments that people post online and respond to complaints in a timelier manner.

Instagram in July 2017 was ranked top in cyber-bullying. Users posted mean comments that would likely have a huge impact on the reading them. This is aside the notion that many users of the platform would naturally feel bad if nobody reacted to their selfies and that their self-confidence was directed to the number of followers they had.

Instagram says it’s a game changer for the users of its platform. If a user types an offensive word, they will be notified to edit the caption before it is published. This way, they will know the platforms frowns at such behaviour.

“In addition to limiting the reach of bullying, this warning helps educate people on what we don’t allow on Instagram and when an account may be at risk of breaking our rules,” Instagram said in the blog.

Earlier this year, Instagram launched a feature that notified users to edit captions considered offensive. It said the results have been promising and that the platform recorded a positive change and feedback. It said that launching this feature is the app’s contribution towards the wellbeing of its users.

So far, the photo-sharing app has worked towards cracking down of images and videos promoting self-harm, hiding likes so that users can freely post what they want to and not what would necessarily attract likes and most recently to cut down on cyber bullying.