New Instagram iOS Update Lets You Bulk Delete Comments, Control Tags And Mentions

In line with its policy of giving users control over comments made by others on their pages, Instagram is rolling out yet another anti online bullying updates. The Facebook owned photo sharing app is letting you control who can mention and tag you in comments going forward. The other update is that you can now delete comments in bulk which gives users the ability to remove majority of negative comments before they can be seen by others.

This comes as Instagram parent company released its May Community Standards Enforcement Report where it said it wants to do more to combat the scourge of online bullying.

On the topic controlling who tags and mentions you in comments, the social media site in a blog post said,

We’ve seen that tags and mentions can be used to target or bully others, so we’re rolling out new controls that allow you to manage who can tag or mention you on Instagram. You can choose whether you want everyone, only people you follow or no one to be able to tag or mention you in a comment, caption or Story.

Mentioning and tagging are great tools in the right hands in that your followers and friends can easily get to see what you want to share with them. But in the wrong hands, it can be a tool for shaming and bullying people by sharing their perceived flaws for the purpose of mockery.

The other feature update is that you can now bulk delete comments and on that, Instagram says,

To enable this feature on iOS, tap on a comment and then the dotted icon in the top right corner. Select Manage Comments and choose up to 25 comments to delete at once. Tap More Options to block or restrict accounts in bulk. To block or restrict accounts on Android, press and hold on a comment, tap the dotted icon and select Block or Restrict.

The other update that may land on the site in the near future is pinned comments.

Soon, we’ll begin testing Pinned Comments. This feature gives people a way to set the tone for their account and engage with their community by pinning a select number of comments to the top of their comments thread.

This means that you will be able to promote favourable comments to the top in the near future even though there is  no stated release date for this.

Here’s more on what the Facebook community is doing to combat online bullying. Here is their  May Community Standards Enforcement Report