Instagram is testing a new feature that will let you secretly block annoying people on the social network, which isn't exactly a bad idea. Instagram is testing the feature with some users, which allows blocking other people's ability to publicly comment on our posts, with the option for us to publish those comments.
Instagram it will block those people from seeing if we are active in the social network, or if we have read a direct message sent by them. Instagram internally calls this function "shadow ban", that is, a secret ban, because that person does not know that he has been blocked, but only thinks that there is no more activity on posts.
Instagram also implements a function that will use artificial intelligence to automatically detect comments for offensive content. Instagram will ask the people who publish them to think twice if they want them to become public or not, because then it will probably automatically block everything.
"The team is launching a test soon that'll give users the power to essentially "shadow ban" a user from their account, meaning the account holder can "restrict" another user, which makes their comments visible only to themselves. It also hides when the account holder is active on Instagram or when they're reading a direct message."
