Chrissy Teigen Thanks Instagram
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Instagram's yet-to-be released comment moderation tool just got a very high-profile endorsement.
Model Chrissy Teigen posted a photo Tuesday morning showing which words she's filtering from her profile.
It's no surprise that Teigen is using the new feature to block negative comments, since she is no stranger to online harassment. With a strong social media presence on Twitter and Instagram, Teigen has been shamed for everything from going out to dinner to eating dyed cereal to that oldie but goodie — her appearance.
From the choice of banned words on her Instagram profile, it seems that she's targeting sexist internet trolls, Donald Trump supporters, and diet fad scammers. With just a few keywords, she can keep the haters at bay better than ever before.
Released last month to businesses, the filtering tool is now slowly being rolled out to individual users, starting with high-profile accounts like Teigen's, according to The Washington Post. “Our goal is to make Instagram a friendly, fun and, most importantly, safe place for self expression," Instagram's head of public policy, Nicky Jackson Colaco, told The Post.
In the aftermath of the racist Twitter trolling of actress Leslie Jones, Instagram is setting a major precedent in how social media companies can address online harassment, a problem that not only celebrities face.
According to a 2013 Pew survey, young women (age 18 to 24), "experience certain severe types of harassment at disproportionately high levels: 26 percent of these young women have been stalked online, and 25 percent were the target of online sexual harassment," in addition to physical threats and sustained harassment common to young people in general.
Pew Research Center - pewinternet.org