Photo-sharing platform Instagram on Tuesday said it was upgrading its abuse filters to hide comments that attack users’ “appearance or character” or threaten their well-being. The social media platform said the “bullying filter” for comments would help make it an “inclusive, supportive place for all voices”.

The company introduced comment filtering in June 2017, when it began automatically hiding offensive – “toxic and divisive” – and spam comments.

“Starting today, Instagram will filter bullying comments intended to harass or upset people in the Instagram community,” the Facebook-owned company said. “To be clear: we don’t tolerate bullying on Instagram.”

Users can disable the bullying filter from the “Comments” section on their phone app.

Instagram also said it was broadening its policies to “guard against bullying young public figures” on the platform. “Protecting our youngest community members is crucial to helping them feel comfortable to express who they are and what they care about,” the company said.