Twitter Debuts New 'Safety Mode' for Automatically Blocking Unwanted Replies
Twitter today announced that it is testing a new feature called Safety Mode, which is designed to cut down on harassment and unwelcome interactions on the social network.
Users who often get unwanted, spammy, or abusive replies to their tweets can turn on Safety Mode, which will autoblock accounts that use harmful language like insults, or send repetitive, uninvited replies and mentions.
Twitter says that Safety Mode assesses the likelihood of a negative engagement by considering the Tweet's content and the relationship between the Tweet author and replier. People blocked by Safety Mode will be unable to follow your account, see your Tweets, or send Direct Messages.
With Safety Mode, the autoblock stays on for a minimum of seven days, and autoblocked accounts are listed in the Safety Mode interface. Accounts that a person follows will not be autoblocked.
To develop Safety Mode, Twitter consulted trusted partners with expertise in online safety, mental health, and human rights.
We want you to enjoy healthy conversations, so this test is one way we're limiting overwhelming and unwelcome interactions that can interrupt those conversations. Our goal is to better protect the individual on the receiving end of Tweets by reducing the prevalence and visibility of harmful remarks.
Twitter is testing Safety Mode with a small group of people at the current time and will expand the testing group as feedback is received. During the beta testing period, Twitter says it will incorporate improvements and adjustments before releasing the feature for all users.
Related Stories
Last week, Apple previewed new child safety features that it said will be coming to the iPhone, iPad, and Mac with software updates later this year. The company said the features will be available in the U.S. only at launch.
A refresher on Apple's new child safety features from our previous coverage:First, an optional Communication Safety feature in the Messages app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac...
Apple has delayed the rollout of the Child Safety Features that it announced last month following negative feedback, the company has today announced.
The planned features include scanning users' iCloud Photos libraries for Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), Communication Safety to warn children and their parents when receiving or sending sexually explicit photos, and expanded CSAM guidance...
Twitter appears to be testing a new "dislike" or thumbs down button for tweets, which is designed to let people downvote replies. Twitter says that the feature is available for "some" iOS users. The dislike button is visible to the person who is viewing tweets, but it is not a publicly available metric or visible to the author of the tweet. The thumbs down option will allow a tweet reply to ...
Amid the ongoing controversy around Apple's plans to implement new child safety features that would involve scanning messages and users' photos libraries, Facebook's former security chief, Alex Stamos, has weighed into the debate with criticisms of multiple parties involved and suggestions for the future.
In an extensive Twitter thread, Stamos said that there are "no easy answers" in the...
Twitter is testing "edge-to-edge" tweets that span the width of the timeline in its official iOS app, a move that would make viewing photos and videos a more full-screen experience.
As Twitter's demonstration shows, the change brings an Instagram-style look to tweeted media, making use of the dead space on either side of pictures, videos, and GIFs. Twitter told The Verge that it's...
Twitter is planning new privacy-related features that provide users with greater control over follower lists and who can see their posts and likes, reports Bloomberg.
The plans are said to include an option to archive old tweets so that other users can't see them after a set period of time designated by the account holder (such as 30, 60, or 90 days, or a whole year), as well as the ability...
Apple today held a questions-and-answers session with reporters regarding its new child safety features, and during the briefing, Apple confirmed that it would be open to expanding the features to third-party apps in the future.
As a refresher, Apple unveiled three new child safety features coming to future versions of iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS Monterey, and/or watchOS 8.
Apple's New Child ...
Twitter users will soon be able to change who can reply to their tweets after they've posted them, the company has announced.
Limiting who could reply to a tweet was already an option, thanks to a feature rolled out last year, but users had to choose who could reply before posting the tweet. Now they can make that decision after the post has gone live.
Changing the reply options on a...
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has said it is "pleased" with Apple's decision to delay the launch of of its controversial child safety features, but now it wants Apple to go further and completely abandon the rollout.
Apple on Friday said it was delaying the planned features to "take additional time over the coming months to collect input and making improvements," following negative...
Twitter says it is rolling out a number of changes to the way direct messages work, including the ability to send a direct message to several people in different conversations. Going forward, Twitter says users will be able to share the same tweet in up to 20 separate direct message conversations, which should ensure "no more (awkward) accidental group chats when you DM a tweet to multiple...
Top Rated Comments
Thanks, Jack!
Deleted Twitter & IG the other day. I feel much more at peace.
Of course the best, most obvious choice is to just not use Twitter or any social media. They are doomsday devices—especially FaceBook.