Facebook is considering introducing a feature already in effect on Instagram that will allow users to secretly ban comments from selected users without their knowledge, effectively “shadowbanning” their responses to posts.
The feature, called “Restrict” on Instagram, is similar to Twitter’s recently-introduced feature that allows users to hide certain replies to tweets.
The potential introduction of the feature on Facebook was reported by the Sun.
The Sun asked Facebook’s Namrata Bostrom about whether Restrict would be coming to Facebook.
“We want to learn and see how users behave, how people are using it, how effective it is,” said Namrata, a product manager at Facebook.
“And we look at how we could apply that to Facebook.
“There’s no decision yet, but we’re sure we’ll share [the decision].”
Bostrom told the Sun that the feature had been introduced on Instagram first, because the imagesharing platform’s userbase skews younger, and is thus more susceptible to cyber-bullying.
“With Instagram, bullying is something the company is committed to as a big priority.
“Because Instagram’s base skew [of users] is younger, bullying has a disproportionately high impact.
Facebook has not made a final decision on the matter, but is simply considering sharing the feature.
Twitter introduced a similar “hide replies” feature last month, which allows users to hide selected responses to their tweets. Users viewing a discussion underneath the tweet of a user who has opted in to this feature now have to check a button in order to view hidden replies.
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Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News.