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Menlo Park (dpa) - Instagram gives users new ways to protect themselves from direct messages from strangers with hate speech and insults.
In the future, you can create a list of words, sentences and emojis that should be filtered out.
Message requests that contain them will end up in a separate folder.
The inquiries can also be reported unread for review from there, said Instagram manager Alexander Kleist at the presentation of the new function on Wednesday.
Similar functions could in time also follow on the platform of the Instagram mother Facebook.
Insulting messages mostly come from people with whom one is not directly connected, explained Kleist.
Prominent users already had the option of blocking messages from strangers entirely.
However, many wanted to keep it open so that everyone could write to them.
With the new feature, Instagram is now trying to offer a safer way to do this.
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Instead of creating their own list, users can initially fall back on a collection prepared by Instagram.
The possibility of creating a personal list is necessary, among other things, because people may find different terms offensive or simply do not want to be confronted with certain words.
Instagram and Facebook actually use software to automatically filter out posts with hate speech and insults as far as possible.
However, these systems have no access to direct messages.
Instagram also wants to make it more difficult for people who have already been blocked to contact them again from a new account.
Instagram does not give any details on how exactly they should be identified - so that it does not become easier to circumvent the measures.
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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210421-99-290915 / 3
Announcement from Instagram