What you need to know:

• Prominent sports stars, celebrities and content creators often see spikes in support or abuse, which Instagram is trying to limit with its new feature: Limits.
• Users can temporarily turn the feature on. It will hide DM requests for those who aren’t followers, and hide comments.
• The platform is rolling out its Hidden Words feature globally by the end of the month. Hidden Words allows users to filter their messages by specific words, phrases or emojis.  

Instagram has introduced a feature to temporarily cap the number of comments and private messages a user can receive in a crisis.

The new ability, called Limits, allows people to “limit comments and DM requests during spikes of increased attention”.

Public figures, sports stars and creators sometimes have spikes in the number of comments and messages, Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, said in a blog post. They can either be an outpouring of support, or a pile-on of abuse.

“We saw this after the recent Euro 2020 final, which resulted in a significant - and unacceptable - spike in racist abuse towards players,” he said.

“Creators also tell us they don’t want to switch off comments and messages completely; they still want to hear from their community and build those relationships.”

Limits is available globally from today, while its previously announced Hidden Words feature, which allows people to filter unwanted or offensive words, phrases or emojis into a hidden folder, will roll out globally by the end of August.

Likewise, Instagram says it has shown its prompt warning to users their comment may be offensive a million times a day, with about 50 per cent of users editing or deleting their remark.