instagram has introduced new features designed to increase the security of users on the social network, with which will avoid threats of Sextortion and scamsusing tools designed to prevent taking screenshots of ephemeral images shared through direct messages.
The Sextortion or sexual extortion is a term associated with a practice that consists of threatening people with reveal images of intimate content in which they appear, to force them to do something they do not want to do. The social network owned by Goal In April of this year, it presented some tools designed specifically to protect users from this type of practices, as well as other abuses carried out through the sending of intimate images in direct messages, in addition to helping to detect possible scams.
At that time, it announced some functions such as the ability to blur images in which nudity is detected, so that the recipient is the one who choose whether you want to see the photo or not. Likewise, a warning notification has also begun to be displayed to remind users to be careful when sending confidential photos.
It will prevent capturing ephemeral images
Now, Instagram has implemented new security tools with which it will continue to expand the protection of users on the social network against sexual extortion, making “the success of the criminals who practice it even more difficult.” In this sense, the social network currently allows screenshots of ephemeral images or videos that are sent through direct messages, although it subsequently notifies users that their content has been captured by the recipient.
However, as the company has announced in a statement on its Meta blog, it will soon stop allowing users to use their devices to take screenshots or record ephemeral images or videos sent through direct messages. That is, from now on, if a user receives a photo with the ‘view once’ or ‘allow repetition’ function, you will not be able to take a capture screen, which will prevent content intended to be deleted after a period of time from being stored and subsequently shared with other people.
Following this line, Instagram It will not allow you to open ephemeral images or videos either. on the web version of Instagram, with the aim of preventing users from bypassing screenshot prevention. With this, these types of images, which can only be viewed once, will only be available from the smartphone application. The company will also roll out the nudity protection feature, mentioned above and introduced in April, globally. This feature, which will be activated by default for teenagers under 18 years of age, blurs images that contain nudity when they are sent or received through Instagram direct messages.
Accounts identified as fraudulent
On the other hand, Meta has also noted that accounts that show signs of “potentially fraudulent” behavior, It will be more difficult for them to request to follow teenagers. This is because Instagram will either block the follow request completely or send it to the teen’s spam folder.
Instagram has announced that accounts that show signs of fraudulent behavior They will not be able to see followers or followed lists either. of the people. This eliminates your ability to use your targets’ follower lists to blackmail them. These potential extortionists will also not be able to see the accounts that users have liked, or the photos in which they have been tagged.
With all this, Meta has indicated that they are constantly working to “improve the techniques” they use to identify scammers“delete their accounts and prevent them from coming back.” To define what type of accounts have fraudulent behavior, or practice fraud Sextortionthe social network will be based on issues such as the age of the account. If it is a very new profile, it will be more likely to be identified as fraudulent.
Additionally, when Meta experts observe behavioral patterns in sexual extortion attempts, they train their technology to recognize them in the future. This way, they can quickly find accounts Sextortion and act against themas well as advance in the detection of scammers, whether new or recurring.
Meta has indicated that these new security functions are added to the Teen Accounts presented last September, with which it will offer teenagers integrated protections that limit issues such as, who can talk to themthe content they can see and the time they spend online. These teenage accounts for Instagram will reach users of the European Union at the end of this year 2024, and will be available globally from January 2025.
‘Sextortion’ accounts deleted
The company has also pointed out some of the measures it has taken against accounts of criminals dedicated to sexual extortion. In this regard, he shared that he has eliminated some 1,600 Facebook groups and accounts that were affiliated with Yahoo Boys and were trying to organize, recruit and train new scammers.
“Although we have been removing offending Yahoo Boys accounts for years, we are implementing new processes that will allow us to identify and remove these accounts more quickly,” Meta added. Thus, the technology company has indicated that they will continue developing defense methods to protect your community from malicious actors dedicated to Sextortionincluding options to stop scammers from reaching their targets and help teens and their families recognize these scams early.
