Instagram is rolling out a new feature that lets users control “sensitive content” in the Explore tab, with settings to “Allow”, “Limit”, and “Limit Even More”
Instagram's Explore tab can feel like the Wild West at times.
EngadgetKris Holt
Context & Ripple Effects
Instagram had already distinguished content that warrants removal from material it would merely obscure through Sensitive Content blurring. The Explore-tab setting extends that approach from a platform-set treatment to a user-selected exposure level.
The move sits in a broader progression toward configurable safety controls: Instagram later made the strictest setting the default for new users under 16 and tested more controls over recommended posts, including an “Interested” control for recommendations.
First-order effects
Explore users gain three explicit choices over how much sensitive content Instagram may show them in recommendations.
Instagram must apply its sensitive-content classification differently for users who choose Allow, Limit, or Limit Even More.
Instagram's later restrictive defaults for younger users show how a general-purpose preference control can become a more targeted teen-safety setting.
Third-order effects
If Instagram continues to add controls across recommendations and interactions, safety on the service shifts from a single moderation decision toward layered defaults and user-configurable filters.
Recommendation systems become a central venue for safety policy because the same content can receive different distribution treatment without being removed.
The trend: Instagram is moving from binary content enforcement toward graduated controls over what users, especially younger users, encounter through recommendations and interactions.
Instagram now has a slider you can use to determine how much ‘sensitive content’ you want to see. An experiment in putting content moderation in the hands of the user. I like this approach 👉 https://about.fb.com/...
Today, Facebook/Instagram announced “sensitive content control” for Instagram, giving users the ability to modulate how much “sensitive content” they're shown in the “explore” recommendation page. Some things to notice: https://about.fb.com/...
Notice that “limit” is the default. So, despite this being presented as a tool to manage sensitive content, it in fact gives instagram users one additional position one either side of the current offerings: a stricter standard, and a looser one.
It does not (yet?) let you set your levels differently for different kinds of content; in other words, you can't make it more strict on violence and more permissive on sex, or vice versa.
Great thread on the trend towards reduction and user control in content moderation. There's a lot to like and a good reason people want these measures. But it won't stop the content moderation wars or reduce demands on gatekeepers, it'll just change them. https://twitter.com/...
Turns out it's more of a switch, and just the latest in a long, long line of examples of platforms doing gymnastics to offer you new milquetoast features instead of getting serious about content moderation... https://twitter.com/...
1 to more user control, but this seems half-assed? What does that slider even mean? Why not give many more granular controls where you know what they mean, or let people insert 3rd party algorithm & filter tools instead? https://twitter.com/...
🧵Research, including mine (https://dl.acm.org/...) suggests that “sensitive posts” mean different things to different social media users at different times. E.g., individuals going through fertility treatments and losses, may not want to see posts about pregnancy or newborns. htt…
Most important: how do we ensure that reductions are in the public interest, accountable, and move us towards a robust, pluralistic, good faith public / away from the vortex of misinformation, cruelty, fraud, and tribalism?
Perfect time to tease a paper of mine that's under consideration right now about sexual content moderation. Needless to say, the treatment of sexual content as sensitive/comparable to violence is just more evidence for a larger point. I know ... so mysterious. More soon! https://…
Today we're giving you more ways to control what you see on Explore. We recognize that everybody has different preferences for what they want to see there, so this control will give you new options to see more or less sensitive content. https://about.instagram.com/ ...
Let's highlight what this means. Instagram not only identifies content they believe should be removed as violations of the community guidelines. They also identify content that's “sensitive” enough not to recommend, but not so bad as to warrant taking down.
If sensitive content becomes a proxy for discriminatory content then pushing the problem onto users without transparency into the algorithms behind it isn't going to solve anything. https://about.fb.com/...
Reduction policies also let platforms safely say they aren't censoring, because the sensitive content remains on the platform for those who can find it. This not only sidesteps responsibility, it may even let platforms be more permissive.
🙄 yeah, Instagram. Sure. This is important. This is what people want. Not an option to change/fix the feed and algorithm like you can on Twitter. 🙄🙄🙄 https://twitter.com/...
With its sensitive content setting, Instagram adds a wrinkle the others haven't: the ability for individual users to adjust - to a very limited degree - how much reduction is going on for them.
Facebook/Instagram will do literally anything to avoid having to make tough editorial decisions. Shoving the decision on to the user is an abdication of duty. Just do your fucking job and manage your community. https://twitter.com/...
@CaseyNewton Need to break this down into multiple sliders like “violence” “inciting hatred” “thirst traps” and “hectoring explainer tweet screenshot reshares”
@mosseri I'm sure you're already thinking of this but would love to see more granular controls. Lots of people fine with nudity but don't want to see violence or gore, for example