The Washington Post has revealed in a recent report that popular photo-sharing platform Instagram has efforts underway to roll out anti-harassment tools, to give the users the ability to ban select phrases or emoji from their comments, or completely turn off comments if desired.

According to the report, Instagram will enable users to combat harassment on the site by allowing them to filter their comment streams, or simply turn off the comments entirely. Users who decide to leave the comments turned on will be able to create a list of banned words, so that comments which use those words remain hidden.

The reported anti-harassment tools have already been rolled out by Instagram to some high-profile users with “high volume content threads.” In due course of time, the company will roll out the tools more widely, to make them available to more users.

The anti-harassment tools which will be made available by Instagram will enable everyday people -- that is, users who do not have much action on their accounts -- to moderate their comment experience on the photo-sharing site.

About Instagram’s move to improve the comment experience for its users by offering anti-harassment tools, Nicky Jackson Colaco – Chief of public policy at Instagram -- said in a statement released to The Post: “Our goal is to make Instagram a friendly, fun and, most importantly, safe place for self expression.”