Instagram Lets Business Pages Block Offensive Comments

Instagram is letting businesses crack down against comments that include inappropriate words or phrases, offering new business pages a comment moderation feature. When enabled, the new "Comment Moderation" option will let the account owner automatically block comments containing both words and/or phrases that have been deemed offensive. The feature has only rolled out to business pages, however.

Businesses have become an important part of Instagram's growth, so it makes sense the company would give them better tools for tailoring the content on their pages...including the content other people post on it, e.g. comments. Instagram confirmed that it added a comment moderation to business pages via TechCrunch, saying the tool rolled out yesterday.

The new feature is found in the account's options section in a new section called "Comment Moderation." Tap it and you'll get the option to toggle on/off comment moderation. According to the menu listing, turning this on will "Block comments with words or phrases often reported as offensive from appearing on your posts."

It's a nice addition, but one that isn't terribly refined — turn it on and everything with one of those words or phrases will disappear. It doesn't appear Instagram has a readily accessible list of offensive words that will get a comment banned, and users aren't able to choose what specific words are okay and which ones will run afoul. Still, it's a solid way for smaller businesses and those without dedicated moderation staff to keep their pages clean.

SOURCE: TechCrunch