Life’s too short for spam bots and negative peeps, which it is perfect that Instagram has a filtering tool that lets you how to moderate Instagram comments, such as prohibiting offensive language. This filtering tool is meant “to promote a culture where everyone feels safe to be themselves without criticism or harassment.” For a while, the feature was being tested only on accounts with a lot of followers, but now it’s available to anyone with an Instagram account. (Hooray!)
Even if you’re not dealing with straight-up abuse — spammers telling your followers to “click here!” or “thumbs up” (when you know they clearly did NOT read your post) get old pretty quickly, too — Instagram’s new filtering tool lets you create a customized list of banned words or phrases, so that any comments containing items on that list will be filtered out. (To be clear, this update is different from being able to disable your comments altogether, which you can do by clicking a button that looks like three dots at the top of a particular photo. From there, click the option that says “Turn off commenting.”)
Whether you’re trying to keep the trolls at bay or just someone who likes to take pictures but can’t be bothered with replying to a ton of comments, this is super handy… oh and did I mention FREE? I’ve put together the following step-by-step guide that will walk you through how to filter comments that are either commonly reported or contain specific words or phrases that you’d rather not see under your photos.
1. Find the “Options” Page
Go to the top right corner of your Instagram profile and click the toggle button that looks like a cogwheel. That will bring you to the “Options” page.
2. Select “Comments” Under “Settings”
Scroll down the “Options” page until you get to the “Settings” section. You’ll see that there’s a new “Comments” section that wasn’t there before. Click “Comments.”
3. Define What Makes Content “Offensive” To You
There are two things you can do on this page. One, you can turn on the “Hide Inappropriate Comments” function so that any offensive words or phrases that are commonly reported on Instagram get automatically filtered out. Two, you can add additional words or phrases to the list that may also be spam or could potentially cause drama, such as “giveaway” or “ugly.” Bonus tip: Instagram will automatically alphabetize items on the list so you can easily find and edit them in the future.
Finally, if you are the complete opposite from me and can’t stand working from your phone, you can do the same thing on your computer. The process of getting to the “Comments” page is slightly different, however. Simply go to your Instagram profile URL, click “Edit profile” (not the toggle button this time) and then click “Comments.”
And there you have it. ENJOY your new way of blocking spam commenting lifers automatically!
The post How to moderate Instagram comments automatically for free appeared first on Laura Rike - formerly Envizion Advertising.