Instagram is well known for the boundary-pushing pictures posted by the users and just like many other social media apps, either the posts get rejected or passed through the company's sensors, to make sure there isn't any warning or alert. But that is about to change now. Instagram will soon start to blur the photos and videos containing "sensitive content".
If anyone reports a post and Instagram's moderation team, upon reviewing, thinks that it is indeed "sensitive", the image or video will appear blurred with this warning on top: The users will have to tap a button if they want to see the post after reading the warning.
Instagram offered some clarity in emails to The Verge, on what will be qualified as sensitive as per the company's censorship standards. Primarily the contents depicting violence will fall under the category. "Examples include animal rights groups that share content to expose animal testing conditions or animal abuse, or content that raises awareness of humanitarian crises around the world (famine, impact of war on local communities)," the company wrote. Also, it didn't rule out the sexually explicit posts to be included under this category. "Over time we will explore expanding the application of screens into other areas," they wrote.
This new warning doesn't mean that nothing will be banned on the platform. Instagram will still allow the likes of posts that were banned before. The only difference is that this time some of them will be subject to a warning screen.
As per Instagram, the goal of blurring posts is to "build a safe environment" for users.
