Instagram is cracking down on cyberflashing
In Maybe This Is Potentially Good News, it looks like Instagram is going to help shoulder the barrage of cyberflashing women experience in direct message requests.
Instagram is trialing a feature that would limit users to sending text-only DM requests to someone who doesn't follow them, The Guardian first reported. The social media app's owner, Meta, announced in a blog post that if the user accepts the message request, then the requester can begin sending photos, videos, and more text messages. And before any of that happens, the requester has to send an invite to get their permission to request.
Currently, people can send unlimited DM requests and they can be text or images. This comes after research shows that trolls send loads of inappropriate, often abusive, photos to women all the time.
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"In practice, this means people will no longer be able to receive unsolicited images or videos from people they don’t follow," Meta said in a statement to The Guardian.
While this trial is testing this feature for all Instagram users, Meta announced it along with a host of new features aimed to increase parental supervision on Instagram and Facebook Messenger. Meta said in a blog that these protections are "especially important when it comes to teens."
Christianna Silva is a senior culture reporter covering social platforms and the creator economy, with a focus on the intersection of social media, politics, and the economic systems that govern us. Since joining Mashable in 2021, they have reported extensively on meme creators, content moderation, and the nature of online creation under capitalism.
Before joining Mashable, they worked as an editor at NPR and MTV News, a reporter at Teen Vogue and VICE News, and as a stablehand at a mini-horse farm. You can follow her on Bluesky @christiannaj.bsky.social and Instagram @christianna_j.
