Impolidez no ambiente digital: medidas implementadas pelo Instagram para evitar o discurso de ódio na rede

Abstract

This article examines the effectiveness of content moderation strategies on social media platforms, specifically Instagram, highlighting their limitations. To achieve this objective, an integrative bibliographic study was prepared, which involved a survey of academic texts (Araújo, 2022; Caldeira, 2022; Culpeper, 2021; Cunha, 2019; Cunha and Oliveira, 2020; Oliveira and Miranda, 2020), internet research on the policies of the social network studied, as well as the book on constitutional law by author Bernardo Gonçalves (Gonçalves, 2010). Based on the theory of linguistic impoliteness (Culpeper, 2021) and the concept of hate speech (Culpeper, 2021) and the definition of hate speech developed by Instagram, an analysis was carried out on the mechanisms used by Instagram to mitigate offensive and hate speech, bringing, by way of example, a succinct analysis of comments on posts by football player Vini Júnior, in order to verify whether these mechanisms are effective and/or restrict users' freedom of expression. Based on this study, it was found that although there are measures, such as detection algorithms and review teams, aimed at reducing offensive subjects, there were difficulties in completely filtering offensive content, as exemplified in the case involving the aforementioned player. The theoretical analysis also revealed significant challenges, including content overload and the difficulty in distinguishing between legitimate and offensive speech. These deficiencies point to the need for improvements in moderation strategies. It concluded that although the Instagram social media platform has attempted to address and moderate the spread of harmful content, there are still gaps in its ability to ensure a safe online environment free from offensive speech.