Instagram is taking an unusual step to deal with the complicated ethics of online commenting. It's giving users the ability to make the choice about what's acceptable or not for themselves.
The network will soon allow all users to filter their own comment streams -- and, if they wish, completely turn off comments -- on their own posts.
While Instagram has general policies for what constitutes acceptable speech on its network, different words or phrases are offensive to different people. So this new feature is designed to let users take the mood of their accounts into their own hands and weed out comments that use terms that account holders find personally offensive.
"Our goal is to make Instagram a friendly, fun and, most importantly, safe place for self expression," said Instagram's head of public policy, Nicky Jackson Colaco, in a statement to The Post.
"We have slowly begun to offer accounts with high volume comment threads the option to moderate their comment experience. As we learn, we look forward to improving the comment experience for our broader community."