strangers will no longer be able to spam you

2023-08-03 17:01:20

Good news: you will soon no longer be harassed by messages from strangers on Instagram! Now, people you don’t already follow will have to send you a request to be able to chat with you.

If social networks are wonderful places for discovery and sharing, they can also quickly prove to be oppressive. When an avalanche of spam hits you, things can quickly spiral out of control. This is particularly the case with Instagram which, until now, allowed users to send an unlimited number of message requests. A situation that can, at best, be uncomfortable, at worst turn into cyberbullying. Also, Meta tries to make it harder for people you don’t already follow to overwhelm you with unwanted DMs (direct messages), as reported. The Verge. Instead, they can only send you an invitation, which you’ll need to accept before they can start chatting with you. A function tested since June, and which is now being rolled out widely.

Instagram: protection once morest unsolicited contacts

To best protect users, you’ll need to send a message request first before you can chat with people you don’t follow, and vice versa. This message in question can only contain text, so that you are no longer subjected to photos, videos and voice messages that might offend you. This measure should make it possible to avoid receiving dick picks – unwanted photos of penises – and whatnot – the platform had already deployed a function to detect and block unwanted photos of genitals sent in private messages (see our article).

© Meta

To make a message request, you need to press the “Requests” button located above your inbox, in the DM tab of Instagram. Please note, to benefit from this protection function, you must define, in your privacy settings, that users must send a request before they can send you a message. “We want people to feel confident and in control when they open their inbox”explains Cindy Southworth, head of women’s safety at Meta, in a press release.

Meta has started testing this feature as part of a larger security campaign. It has also rolled out more robust parental controls on Instagram and Messenger, which give parents more detailed insight into what their children are doing there, including how much time they are spending there.

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