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Gulf Today Report

The internet, in particular social media, has turned out to be a major ground for misuse by unscrupulous elements. Hurling abuse, bullying, displaying indecent pictures have become quite common. Children especially are very vulnerable to ‘strangers’ they come across online.

It’s not that there are no efforts being made to stem all this. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), through its Global Programme on Cybercrime is doing its best to promote a safer internet. The UAE Cybersecurity Council has warned against publishing personal contact information on unreliable online platforms or websites.

In a new development, Instagram has rolled out new features to protect users from abuse, along with updates to Hidden Words.

Now if you block someone, you will have the option to block additional accounts they may have to make it more difficult for them to connect with you again, the company said in a blogpost.

Based on the findings of the first tests for this new change, the company expects that four million fewer accounts will need to be blocked each week since these accounts will now be blocked automatically.

Since it launched last year, more than one in five people with a minimum of 10,000 followers have turned on the Hidden Words feature.

Hidden Words is an effective tool for automatically removing damaging content from message requests and comments.

According to the company, 40 per cent fewer comments on average might be offensive, according to Indo-Asian News Service.

The firm is starting to test automatically turning on Hidden Words for Creator accounts.

Every user will be able to turn the settings on or off at any time and make a customised list with additional words, phrases and emojis they might want to hide.

Now, a new notification will encourage the users to pause and think how they want to respond before replying to a comment that might be offensive.

The application also reminds people to be respectful in direct chats when sending a message request to a creator, the company said.