Instagram is now rolling out a new content reporting feature that lets users flag off content which they believe is false and incorrect. The Facebook owned social network is adding a new “false information” option to the list of options that you get when you attempt to report a post. The social network will now also have human fact-checkers who will then verify the posts which you report. These new measures are a part of the expanded Third-Party Fact-Checking Program (3PFC), which now covers the popular photo and video sharing social network.
If you wish to report any suspicious content or post that you come across on Instagram, you will have to tap on the three-dot menu that you can see in the upper right corner of each Instagram post. You then select the “it’s inappropriate” option, which then opens up a subsequent page with multiple options, from which you can select one. Now, one of the options will be “false information”. Till now, some of the listed options included Nudity or Pornography, Harassment or bullying, intellectual property violation, hate speech or symbols and sale or promotion of drugs, to name a few. Poynter reports that initially, all fact checkers will be based in the US, though this program should expand globally in the coming months.
But what will happen to these posts? For the time being, the posts reported for false content will not be immediately deleted from the social network. Poynter reports that a Facebook spokesperson confirms these posts will be downplayed in the Explore and Hashtag pages.
The move to expend the third-party fact checking program to Instagram is surely welcome. At a time when it is hard to distinguish between genuine information and what is being hawked by pliable influencers, this could indeed just be helpful in sifting the wheat from the chaff.
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