Instagram's new comment features explained

Instagram has revealed two new features designed to give users more control over comments on their posts.

The first will let people hide certain words, phrases or emoji icons from their feed.

The second will go further in allowing users to block comments entirely, on a post by post basis.

Verified accounts will be able use these new tools first before they are rolled out to everyone, Newsbeat has learned.

Accounts which get lots of comments will get access in the next couple of weeks.

It follows the high profile feud between Taylor Swift and Kanye West which led to so-called "Snakegate".

It began when the singer released a statement saying she hadn't agreed for her name to be used in Kanye's song Famous.

She was criticised by his wife Kim Kardashian West, who then appeared to send a tweet about the row which some people saw as a backhanded dig against Swift.

She wrote: "Wait it's legit National Snake Day. They have holidays for everybody. I mean everything these days."

Hundreds of snake emojis appeared on Swift's account and then suddenly disappeared.

There's no confirmation that the star had access to one of the new features.

But Nicky Jackson Colaco, director of public policy at Instagram, told Newsbeat: "Our goal is to make Instagram a friendly, fun and, most importantly, safe place for self-expression.

"We have slowly begun to offer accounts with high volume comment threads the option to moderate their comment experience.

"As we learn, we look forward to improving the comment experience for our broader community."

Giving people the ability to moderate comments on their pages is nothing new.

Facebook lets page administrators block a list of words that they can choose, but also offers a filter of its own to help block certain swear words and phrases.

Lots of news websites also use similar tools in their comments sections.

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