Instagram testing a feature that would alert users about outage within app? Details inside

On October 4, the company's 3.5 billion users could not access its social media and messaging services, including WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger, due to a six-hour outage.

Instagram, a subsidiary of Facebook, announced on Monday that it is testing a feature that would alert users of outages or technical difficulties directly on the photo-sharing app, only days after two disruptions interrupted the social media giant's services last week. Instagram announced in a blog post that the test would take place in the United States for a few months. On October 4, the company's 3.5 billion users could not access its social media and messaging services, including WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger, due to a six-hour outage.

According to user reports on the Web monitoring site Downdetector, several Instagram users had issues earlier on Monday. The firm also intends to launch a tool that will make it easier for users to determine whether their account is at risk of being disabled. Following the disruptions, the social media behemoth has been the subject of memes and jokes on Twitter. It is also dealing with former employee turned whistleblower Frances Haugen's claim that the business consistently prioritised profit over cracking down on hate speech and disinformation.

Haugen, who gave records that aided a Wall Street Journal investigation and a Senate hearing on Instagram's harm to adolescent girls, has consented to meet with Facebook's oversight board to update them on what she discovered while working for the coming weeks business.

In other news, Instagram, a Facebook-owned photo-sharing site, will implement additional safeguards to steer teens away from harmful content and encourage them to "take a vacation" from the platform. On CNN's State of the Union, Facebook's vice president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, discussed the new upcoming measures. 

Speaking to the media, Clegg said that they are going to introduce something that they believe will make a significant difference, which is that if our systems detect that a teenager is viewing the same content repeatedly. It's content that may not be conducive to their well-being; we will nudge them to view other content. He also noted that the firm is halting preparations for Instagram Kids and is providing parents with optional options to oversee their adolescent children. There is also a "Take a Break" button "feature that encourages adolescents to take a break from Instagram.