Instagram announces two new initiatives for creators, tries to make platform safer

Instagram today organized its inaugural ‘Instagram Experience’ (IGX) event to showcase a new initiative it is planning to roll out in India. Called ‘Born on Instagram’ it shall ‘celebrate, discover and showcase creators in big and regional cities, and give them collaboration and mentorship opportunities’, said the company’s statement on the same.

A timeline to the launch of this initiative hasn’t been disclosed yet, however, it is confirmed that with will begin sometime this year and in 15 Indian cities. 

The event was also attended and led in part by Instagram’s Vice President of Product, Vishal Shah. Talking about the platform, Vishal mentioned a slew of updates that he and his team shall be introducing rolling out onto Instagram. 

A recent IPSOS India study showed that 94 percent of people said they searched for more information after seeing a product or service on Instagram. Thus, he impressed upon making Instagram a more facilitating platform for window-shopping on mobile and reiterated their already announced ideas for doing so. It has been reported upon earlier that Instagram is working on interactive stickers like poll for starters and AR filters for story advertisements, where people could try out products online, on the go.

The VP further touched upon updates like a restricted list or letting only approved comments from certain accounts decidedly bothersome to a user, get published on their posts. He also elaborated upon the just launched threads application, as well as an AI-backed feature to prompt before the posting of any negative comments. 

While these developments are interesting, more immediately it is putting forth a new content series called ‘Unlabel’. In partnership with youth media platform Yuvaa, this will feature young Indians challenging stereotypes to be their authentic selves. Further making Instagram a safe digital space, touching upon issues of sexuality, body image and so forth. 

Meanwhile, for the rest of the app-based changes, there is no timeline as to when those will roll out in India.