The social network Instagram will start deleting user accounts for statements that incite hatred on the grounds of race or religion, in personal messages.
“Today we announce that we will take tougher measures if we become aware that people are violating these rules (about the inadmissibility of inciting hate speech – ed.) In personal messages,” the company said in a statement. – Earlier, in the case of complaints about the offensive content of personal messages, we blocked the possibility of sending them for a certain time. Now, if such actions continue, we are blocking the account. We will also block new accounts that the user can create to circumvent the restrictions.”
The moderation of such statements, which previously applied to users’ pages, will now affect personal messages.
The company clarified that they do not plan to violate the secrecy of correspondence and review the messages in one way or another. The lock will be introduced based on complaints from users who have been abused.
As noted on Instagram, the new tightening of the rules is caused by a recent series of insults in personal messages sent from a number of accounts to players of the English football club “Manchester United”. The social network is ready to cooperate with law enforcement agencies in the UK in the investigation of this case.
Social networks over the past year on the wave of the Black Lives Matter movement have significantly strengthened the moderation of published messages to prevent insults on the grounds of race, nationality, or religion. After the riots in the Capitol on January 6, many of them also intensified the fight against statements that could be considered calls for violence or extremist actions.
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