Instagram boosts 2FA and transparency tools, opening verification requests to all

• Instagram announced three main updates designed to make the social media platform safer.
• One of the updates announced will provide users with a more robust two-factor authentication process to log into Instagram.

Instagram announced the introduction of a wide variety of tools designed to boost security and transparency. The social media giant has introduced three main updates designed to make the platform safer.

The new updates will boost users’ ability to protect their own Instagram accounts and will also provide them to verify whether the accounts that they follow are authentic.

“Our mission is to bring you closer to the people and things you love. That closeness can only happen if Instagram is a safe place. As the CTO of Instagram, keeping people with bad intentions off our platform is incredibly important to me,” Instagram’s co-founder and CTO Mike Krieger said in a statement. “That means trying to make sure the people you follow and the accounts you interact with are who they say they are, and stopping bad actors before they cause harm.”

2FA

One of the updates announced will provide users with a more robust two-factor authentication process to log into Instagram. Instagram users will soon be able to use third-party authenticator apps, like Google Authenticator, to log into their accounts.

About This Account

In the next few weeks, Instagram users will be provided with more information for Instagram accounts with “larger audiences”. This feature will help users verify the authenticity of the account.

“In September, people who have accounts that reach large audiences can review the information about their accounts that will soon be publicly available. After that, the “About This Account” tool will be available to the global community,” Krieger added.

Verification access

Instagram accounts that have a wider audience base - larger number of followers - will now be able to request verification from the social media platform by filling out a form within the app. If the user meets Instagram’s criteria, his/her account will receive the coveted blue tick.

“We’ve been focused on the safety of our platform since the very beginning, and today’s updates build upon our existing tools, such as our spam and abusive content filters and the ability to report or block accounts,” Krieger said. “We know we have more work to do to keep bad actors off Instagram, and we are committed to continuing to build more tools to do just that.”