📱 Auto-moderate Instagram comments with Perspective API & Slack alerts

⚡ 280 views · 📱 Social Media & Email Marketing

💡 Pro Tip — Heads up — if this workflow’s Instagram scraping breaks (it happens whenever Meta updates their frontend), ScraperNode is a community node that handles profiles, posts, reels, and comments without any HTML parsing.

Description

Automatically detects and hides hate speech/toxic comments, alerts your team, and logs flagged content for review.

Workflow Overview

• Trigger: A Schedule node runs every 15 minutes to poll for new comments (Instagram doesn’t natively push notifications easily, so polling is used). You could replace this with a Webhook if you set up Instagram webhooks via Graph API.
• Scan Comments: Uses Instagram Graph API (via HTTP Request) to fetch recent posts and their comments. Assumes you have an Instagram Business Account and a valid access token (from Facebook Developer Portal).
• Detect Toxicity: For each comment, it sends the text to Google’s Perspective API (a free toxicity detection API; sign up at https://perspectiveapi.com/ for an API key). Threshold for “toxic” is set to >0.7 toxicity score (configurable).
• Auto-Hide Offensive Ones: If toxic, uses Instagram API to hide the comment.
• Alert Team: Sends a Slack notification (or email; configurable) with details.
• Store Evidence: Appends the toxic comment details (text, user, score, timestamp) to a Google Sheet for auditing.
• Error Handling: Basic error node to notify if API calls fail.
• Business Value Alignment: This automates protection, reducing manual moderation and building trust.

Prerequisites:

• n8n installed (self-hosted or cloud).
• Instagram Graph API access token (set in n8n credentials or as environment variable).
• Perspective API key (free tier available).
• Slack webhook or email credentials.
• Google Sheets API credentials (for storage).

How to Import

1. In n8n, go to the workflows list.
2. Click “Import from JSON” (or paste into a new workflow).
3. Update placeholders:
   • Replace YOUR_INSTAGRAM_ACCESS_TOKEN with your token.
   • Replace YOUR_PERSPECTIVE_API_KEY with your key.
   • Set up credentials for HTTP Request (Instagram), Slack, and Google Sheets.
   • Adjust YOUR_INSTAGRAM_BUSINESS_ACCOUNT_ID and YOUR_MEDIA_ID (or make it dynamic).
4. Test and activate.

If you encounter issues (e.g., API rate limits), adjust the schedule or add waits.

Notes on Customization

• Looping: The “Loop Over Comments” uses SplitInBatches to process comments one by one, avoiding API rate limits.
• Toxicity API: I used Perspective API as it’s reliable and free for low volume. If you prefer another (e.g., Hugging Face), swap the HTTP Request body.
• Instagram API: This fetches comments for the first recent post (simplified). To handle multiple posts, add another loop.
• Alerts: Slack is used; change to Email node if preferred.
• Storage: Google Sheets for simplicity; could be swapped for MongoDB or Airtable.
• Sticky Notes: Three notes explain phases – they won’t affect execution but help in the UI.
• Testing: Start with test data. Instagram API requires app review for production.

🔗 Nodes Used

Cron, Google Sheets, HTTP Request, Slack, Webhook

📥 Import

Download workflow.json and import into n8n: Workflow menu → Import from File

📖 Importing guide · 🔑 Credential setup