In the efforts to fight against the flow and sharing of misleading and false information, US social media app giant, Instagram has rolled out a major new feature that is sure to ruffle a few feathers within the online influencer community.
It all started in May 2019 when Instagram started working with third-party fact checkers in the States who would ultimately aid in the identification, reviewal as well as the labeling of false information content on the social platform.
“When content has been rated false or partly false by a third-party fact checker, we reduce its distribution by removing it from Explore and hashtag pages. In addition, it will be labelled so people can better decide for themselves what to read, trust, and share. When these labels are applied, they will appear to everyone around the world viewing that content – in feed, profile, stories and direct messages. ”
Despite the company’s good intentions, their major move of flagging fake photos has caused a disruption in the efficiency in which digital artists share their content. This is especially true for photographer, Toby Harriman who was the first to document on the occurrence when he noticed that his shot had been flagged as false information.
“Interesting to see this and curious if it’s a bit too far. As much as I do love it to help better associate real vs photoshop. I also have a huge respect for digital art and don’t want to have to click through barriers to see it. ”
According to Instagram, the new false information flagging system uses a combination of both community feedback and technology to identify the photos in which to pass along to independent third party fact checkers. Should those checkers decide that a photo consists of fake elements, it will be hidden behind warning messages prior to anyone seeing it.
However, in clarifying the flagging of Photoshoped images, a Facebook spokesperson had the following to say on the matter:
“We don’t hide content because it’s Photoshopped, we apply a label when a fact-checker has rated it. Upon review from the fact-checker, they changed the rating, so it is no longer being labelled as false on Instagram and Facebook. “
Ultimately, this means that Instagram is not hiding photoshopped images, but is instead trying to target intentional false information. Additionally, according to the Facebook spokesperson, all incorrectly labelled photos that have been labelled as “false” by Instagram, be it digital art or influencer editing, will be sent for review and have the restriction removed.
This should put Instagram content creators at ease.
