In the past few years Instagram has been trying to make its platform as clean and safe as possible and that involved a lot of restrictions on the type of content that could be posted, viewed, shared, or propagated on the platform.
On Friday, the platform’s head Adam Mosseri released a short video on his Twitter handle discussing the tensions over the restrictions placed on content on the platform. In the video, he promised to be as open and transparent as possible with users regarding the company's efforts to make the platform safe.
As more and more people take to Instagram to speak out on social issues, the platform is trying to prevent election interference, specifically in the U.S as it is an election year, explained Mosseri. Although sometimes, these goals clash together. This is the main cause of these tensions over content restrictions.
Mosseri earnestly started with acknowledging users' frustration with Instagram and made clear the differences in opinion that were the cause of these tensions. Some people believe that Instagram took down content that they should have left alone while others believe that they should have taken down more content than they did, especially on political category.
Mosseri highlighted the problems a few racial justice activists faced. The activists discovered that some of their content had been taken down and Mosseri clarified that this was due to Instagram's anti-bot settings; this means that the posts made by the activists were shared, liked, and commented on so frequently that they were mistakenly flagged as bots by the system. He admitted that this was a flaw in their system and that the team at Instagram was working on ways to fix these issues.
If a company wants to improve public relations, the easiest way is to be open and transparent with its workings. The fact that the CEO of one the biggest and most important social network around the world publicly admitted the faults in the system and his public show of humility eased the minds of his critics who were concerned with the censorship settings on the platform.
Finally, Mosseri mentioned his pending paternity and mentioned his three sons who are all under the age of five; this gave a humanizing and humbling touch to his speech. Mosseri then said that he and his team are working tirelessly to make sure that grave mistakes like this are avoided in the future and are actively discussing ways to solve the flaws in the system.
Read next: Instagram's New Update Will Let Merchants Sell Online Through Its Platform
Featured photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images
On Friday, the platform’s head Adam Mosseri released a short video on his Twitter handle discussing the tensions over the restrictions placed on content on the platform. In the video, he promised to be as open and transparent as possible with users regarding the company's efforts to make the platform safe.
As more and more people take to Instagram to speak out on social issues, the platform is trying to prevent election interference, specifically in the U.S as it is an election year, explained Mosseri. Although sometimes, these goals clash together. This is the main cause of these tensions over content restrictions.
Mosseri earnestly started with acknowledging users' frustration with Instagram and made clear the differences in opinion that were the cause of these tensions. Some people believe that Instagram took down content that they should have left alone while others believe that they should have taken down more content than they did, especially on political category.
Mosseri highlighted the problems a few racial justice activists faced. The activists discovered that some of their content had been taken down and Mosseri clarified that this was due to Instagram's anti-bot settings; this means that the posts made by the activists were shared, liked, and commented on so frequently that they were mistakenly flagged as bots by the system. He admitted that this was a flaw in their system and that the team at Instagram was working on ways to fix these issues.
If a company wants to improve public relations, the easiest way is to be open and transparent with its workings. The fact that the CEO of one the biggest and most important social network around the world publicly admitted the faults in the system and his public show of humility eased the minds of his critics who were concerned with the censorship settings on the platform.
Finally, Mosseri mentioned his pending paternity and mentioned his three sons who are all under the age of five; this gave a humanizing and humbling touch to his speech. Mosseri then said that he and his team are working tirelessly to make sure that grave mistakes like this are avoided in the future and are actively discussing ways to solve the flaws in the system.
Many of you are frustrated with Instagram. We’re committed to doing better, and being open about what we do and how we do it. #ThisWeekOnInstagram pic.twitter.com/LDDpQUigWu— Adam Mosseri 😷 (@mosseri) June 26, 2020
Read next: Instagram's New Update Will Let Merchants Sell Online Through Its Platform
Featured photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images
