Instagram to disable accounts of users who send abusive messages via DMs

Instagram on Wednesday said it will disable accounts that continue to send violating messages on its platform.

“Currently, when someone sends DMs that break our rules, we prohibit that person from sending messages for a period of time,” it said, stating its existing rules.

Instagram said that it has also started rolling more controls out to personal accounts in many countries, and we hope to make them available to everyone soon. It is said that people can also choose to turn off tags or mentions from anyone they don’t know or block anyone who sends them unwanted messages

The update was announced after a surge in racist online abuse targeted at UK footballers was seen.