Twitter is testing a new option to restrict who can mention you in the app
Twitter is developing another audience control option for your tweetswith a new option that would allow you to prevent people from mentioning your @username entirely or limit mentions to only people you follow in the app.
As you can see in this image, posted by app researcher Jane Manchun Wongthe new option, which Twitter is currently experimenting with, would give you more control over how people can interact with your tweets.
At the top, there is a switch to ‘Allow others to mention you’, which would prevent people from referencing your @handle entirely.
That would, presumably, simply disable any mention of your handle, much like Twitter’s recently launched ‘Unmention’ option, which allows you to leave Twitter chats you no longer want to be a part of.
As you can see in this example, if you choose to leave a thread via this option, your handle link is disabled within that thread. People can still mention your handle after that, but it won’t be linked to your profile and you won’t get an alert about it.
Presumably, if you chose to prevent others from mentioning you altogether via this new toggle, that would follow a similar logic: You wouldn’t be able to prevent people from using your @handle in their tweets, but it wouldn’t be an active mention anymore, as such.
In addition to this, there is also a new option that would allow you to limit mentions to only those who you follow in the app.
Twitter implemented a range of audience control tools for tweets over the past year and quite a bit, including unmention, as noted, along with restricted replies, twitter circles for private group chats, Safe Modethat automatically blocks spam or abusive responses, and Communities for closed topical discussions.
In combination, these elements could have a significant impact on the way Twitter works, moving away from its “global square” approach and giving everyone a voice in topical discussions, to a more isolated set of diverse but isolated tweets. . talks
Which could be a good thing. The reason Twitter added all of these elements is to help users avoid the negative impacts of public posting, as many people simply choose not to share their opinions on the app for fear of being ‘cancelled’ if they say something. incorrect.
In fact, a Pew Research study published last year showed that About 25% of Twitter users in the US produce about 97% of all tweets.
That’s a lot of passive consumption of Twitter content, and a lot of that is probably due to, as noted, fear of being called out for saying the wrong thing, with the public nature of the platform meaning your bad shots can be quickly and widely magnified for all to see.
By providing more control options, it reduces that concern, while also giving people more options to shut down spammers, creeps, trolls, and anyone else who wants to provoke you into the app.
Which is a good thing: Users should have the option to dictate their own Twitter experience, and in some cases, there’s just no need to mess around with the crap people want to share.
Though there would also be concerns about public figures shutting down dissenting opinions and using tools like these as a means of guiding certain narratives among their audiences.
But given that most of these other tools have already been released, and haven’t necessarily been used for a negative purpose (for the most part), it seems less of a concern than it once would have been, and as such it probably makes sense. that Twitter provides even more monitoring tools to help.
Twitter hasn’t made any official announcement about the test, which isn’t public yet, though a Twitter developer did. confirm that you are being investigated (before deleting the tweet).
I wonder how Elon Musk feels about audience controls and how that aligns with his vision for the app.