Instagram’s have announced some pretty staggering usage numbers. Globally they’re now have 800 million users with 500 of those coming back every single day. In Australia, there’s more than 9 million active users each month, pretty impressive given the 24 million population, many of those who are under the age of 13 specified in the terms of service.
With a growing community of users, Instagram have announced additional controls to help content creators manage their community, helping to maintain a positive and safe place for self-expression. We all know and see the best and worst of humanity everyday online and only with the right set of tools can the best rise to the top and the worst be minimised.
Instagram admits, they are still at the beginning of this fight and commit to building a platform where everyone feels safe to be themselves without criticism or harassment.
CEO & Co-Founder, Kevin Systrom said,
“Since the beginning, we’ve tried to make Instagram a welcoming place for everyone. Our community has grown to 800 million, with 500 million using it every day. It’s more important than ever to strengthen our commitment to safety and kindness.”
Will Easton, Managing Director, Australia and New Zeland says,
“Today, Instagram is extremely excited to announce that our globally connected community has grown to more than 800 million active users monthly and 500 million active users daily.
Instagram continues to be the platform of choice for people to strengthen meaningful connections and build communities of support. This year alone we have grown locally to over 9million monthly active users, highlighting how Australians continue to use the platform to connect with what matters to them most; whether that be as a consumer or as a business.
With 800 million users now using the platform each month, it’s more important than ever to strengthen our commitment to safety and kindness, so to support our diverse, global community we’ve, recently introduced a series of new features and tools including sensitive content screens and offensive comments filtering.”
The new features are:
Comment Controls
- We’re announcing more comment controls to keep people feeling safe and welcome.
- In the past year, we have launched a number of tools to help you control the comment experience, and today we’re announcing more that will help give you the power to have a positive comment experience.
- Now those of you with public accounts will be able to choose who can comment on your posts, from everyone to just groups of people, like people you follow or your followers.
- Those of you who have private accounts will now be able to block certain accounts from commenting on your posts. If you’re public – you can block anyone from commenting.
- In June, we launched a filter to block certain offensive comments in English, today we are expanding this filter to Arabic, French, German, and Portuguese.
- The filter will improve over time, enabling the community’s experience of sharing to improve as well.
- You can access these tools by going to the Settings menu and tapping “Comments”
#KindComments Murals and Kindness Stickers
- We’re kicking off a global initiative to turns walls around the world into colorful beacons of kindness.
- Murals by artists in the local communities will appear in New York, Dallas, Chicago, Washington, DC, Mexico City, Jakarta, Tokyo, Mumbai and more.
- The walls in all cities will feature a #kindcomments hashtag to encourage in-person visitors and the Instagram community at large to take a photo/video and share a kind comment.
- By focusing on kindness in comments, we hope to acknowledge the important ways people care for each other every day.
- Visit a wall, take a photo or video and share a #KindComment to make someone’s day.
- You can also participate by using a new kindness-themed heart-shaped sticker, which were created by artists in our local community.
Anonymous Reporting for Live Video
- We’re continuing to provide mental health resources to people when they need them the most.
- Now, if you see someone going through a difficult time or in need of support during a live broadcast, you can anonymously report it.
- The person will see a message offering help with options to talk to a helpline, reach out to a friend or get other tips and support.
- The reporting tool can be found by clicking on the three dots in the comments bar at the bottom of the screen.
- We have teams working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, around the world to be there when people need us most.
- This is an important step in ensuring that people get help wherever they are – on Instagram or off.
Well-being community members championing body positivity and kindness on the platform:
Account: @kobi_jae
Description: Alternative fa(t)shion and body positivity blogger. A founding member of the online community centered around the hashtag #alternativecurves as well as a frequent user of the hashtag #whatfatgirlsACTUALLYwear.
Account: @jessicavanderleahy
Description: Victoria’s Secret plus size model, who created @projectwomankind, a space dedicated to celebrating body positivity and acceptance.
Account: @ajclementine_
Description: Transgender model and vocal advocate for diversity, AJ Clementine has used Instagram to document her transformation, using the community to find support and inspire others to be their true self
