Instagram is to provide new tools to keep the platform safe and transparent. The company has come up with three significant updates; About this account, a global verification update, and third-party authentication to securely log into Instagram.
Instagram’s ‘About this Account’ is designed to provide information to the users so that it becomes easier to evaluate the legitimacy of an account. To use this feature tap on the menu button from an account with substantial reach and it will provide all the basic information like when an account was created, the country from where it is made accounts that share followers and the number of times the username has been changed over the last year.
This will also link accounts with large audiences to the Instagram ads, it is in accordance to the recent conversation around ad transparency as followed in Russian government-sponsored political ads and disinformation oozing into social platforms.
This feature is yet to launch as Instagram will review the information from people’s accounts who reach out to large audiences. After the review is done within September, the new feature will launch around the globe.
The second significant update is the verification update. To use this feature user needs to tap on the menu icon from its own account, choose “Settings”, and “Request Verification.” Instagram will then review the request, asking users to “provide your account username, your full name and a copy of your legal or business identification,” information that will not be made available to the public.
Instagram is trying to make sure to its users that the people they follow and the accounts they interact are authentic and hence halting accounts that could cause harm.
Lastly, the video and photo sharing app is adding support for third-party authenticator apps like Google Authenticator and DUO Mobile, providing a vigorous two-factor authentication system (2FA). To use the update, go to your profile, tap the menu icon, select settings at the bottom, choose “Two-Factor Authentication,” and select your preferred form of authentication.
If you previously have an authentication app installed, we will automatically find the app and send a login code to it.- Instagram, info center.
All of the above updates are initiatives taken by Instagram to promote safe usage to its users and to society at large. I hope this really helps.
