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Instagram will filter out bullying comments
At the F8 conference today, it was announced that Instagram will filter out bullying comments from posts, starting today. This includes anything "intended to harass or upset people in our community," the platform's CEO said in a post. Doing this will ensure Instagram remains "an inclusive, supportive place for all voices," he wrote.
From our CEO kevin "Starting today, Instagram will filter bullying comments intended to harass or upset people in our community. To be clear: we don't tolerate bullying on Instagram. Our Community Guidelines have always prohibited bullying on our platform, and I'm proud to announce this next step in our ongoing commitment to keeping Instagram an inclusive, supportive place for all voices. We also believe in promoting kindness — encouraging our community to support one another both on and off Instagram. On Saturday we will host a Kindness Prom to celebrate people on our platform who are spreading positivity. These young leaders are inspiring their peers by helping kindness, acceptance and support grow on Instagram and in the world. Since Mike and I founded Instagram, it's been our goal to make it a safe place for self-expression and to foster kindness within the community. This update is just the next step in our mission to deliver on that promise."
The filter will be enabled automatically, but can be disabled. Regardless of a user's settings, the filter will be able to automatically flag comments for official review. Facebook's DeepText machine learning algorithm is used to review words for context and meaning.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 01 2018, @11:55PM (8 children)
Instagram is attempting to automate their censorship.
No biggie, lots of alternatives. The only true evil in this whole internet business is the service provider. They are the only insurmountable obstacle to open communications.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @12:05AM (3 children)
One of the problems with automated censorship is that it always catches countless innocent people in the crossfire. Youtube is another great example of this. So even if one supports silencing the people ostensibly targeted by this, it's hard to support these automated systems.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @12:45AM (2 children)
The futility! What are they going to do when variations of "Great picture" or "You look stunning" become common as sarcastic slurs?
Why is it that would-be language censors never understand how language develops? Is it because they are all a bit "special"?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @03:14AM
So let's do that and find out. Grab a few instagram accounts and spend a few minutes each day flagging random posts that contain close variations of "great picture" and "you look stunning." Not all compliments though. Just those two.
We'll call it the Meta Turing test. It tests whether people using machine learning understand the test that Turing actually proposed.
If we need to be politically correct, I'm fine with a Meta Lovelace test. It tests whether they understand what Lovelace actually wrote and have given some thought to what constitutes the origination of ideas.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 03 2018, @02:18AM
Look up "operation google".
(Score: 2) by terrab0t on Wednesday May 02 2018, @12:14PM (1 child)
Exactly. The web needs protocols, not monopolies. No single entity can censor email, RSS, IRC, Mastodon, or news groups because no single entity controls them.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @04:22PM
But the service provider can block protocols at the drop of a hat, so it doesn't matter how many you have. For now our best option is to just blend in with the noise. Anything that stands out is like a flashing beacon that only only gets unwanted attention. If we want to stop the tyrants dead in their tracks we must depreciate the ISP, then we won't to think about monopolies.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @05:46PM (1 child)
Maybe you should have read to the end of TFS:
Just because you have the right to speak does not mean that others have the obligation to listen.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @07:42PM
but can be disabled.
Uh huh... Got a nice bridge for ya... I bet you believe all those 'privacy policies' too!