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Twitter Plans to Limit Replies to the Tweets to Contain Online Abuse
9 Jan, 2020 / 11:28 AM / Twitter

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Twitter is testing new features on its platform early this year that would allow users to control who can reply to their tweets, as it looks to limit abuse and harassment on the platform.

Social media firms are under pressure to address harassment on their sites, which often occurs in unsolicited replies targeting women and minorities. “We want to help people feel safe participating in the conversation on Twitter by giving them more control over the conversations they start,” the San Francisco-based company said in a tweet.

According to the reports by The Verge Twitter is testing a new setting that limits the amount of people who can slide into your mentions. The setting will appear on the compose screen, and includes four options: Global, Group, Panel, and Statement. Global is for the bravest among us, while Group opens the gate for those you follow and mention. Panel, on the other hand, is specifically for those mentioned in the tweet. “Getting ratio’d, getting dunked on, the dynamics that happen that we think aren’t as healthy are definitely part of...our thinking about this,” said Suzanne Xie, Twitter’s director of product management, at CES. But what of those who willfully spread misinformation, you ask? Who will ensure they be alerted to their mistruths? Xie suggests this can be achieved through the quote tweet function, though that won’t help any gullible lurkers who stumble across the offending tweet. So, while the function certainly seems capable of protecting people from harassment, it also threatens to isolate users in even smaller bubbles.

Xie admits that this is “something we’re going to be watching really closely as we experiment,” noting that Twitter will be “in the process of doing research on the feature” in the first quarter of the year before launching it later this year.

In a presentation at the annual CES tech conference, the company laid out plans, according to reports by several tech media, including The Verge and TechCrunch.