Twitter Rolls Out a New Blocking Feature

From now on, you’ll be able to remove certain followers without having to block them. What’s even better, they won’t even know that blacklisting has happened.

Twitter has prepared another privacy filter, which blocks people without actually blocking them. Even though it sounds a bit confusing, the idea is simple: your tweets won’t make a cameo anymore in their feed.

This know-how allows getting rid of annoying commentators and trolls in a “humane” fashion. While they won’t be welcome anymore, they won’t even know, which spares their feelings in a way.

The feature has been going through a series of tests since the last September. And now it seems to gain positive feedback on the platform. To employ this “silent kill” feature, do this:

• Open the Followers category.
• Find a follower whose presence isn’t welcome anymore.
• Open the three-dot menu, which is next to their nickname.
• Select Remove the follower and voilà — the ban will keep them behind the fence.

Probably, the best part about this trick is that the banished follower won’t be notified about what kind of drastic measures have been applied to them. Basically, your tweets become “invisible”.

The feature has been launched by Twitter as part of the massive campaign against hatred and hate speech. In turn, this implies more privacy features.

Now, people can archive their older tweets, choose the people who can be a part of the conversation thread, and so on. 

Another know-how is dubbed Safety Mode. The idea is that accounts, which use harmful language — insults, racial slurs, hate speech aimed at a certain group — will be blocked for 7 days or more.

Now you can ban people without having to block them. While such features do deliver more safety online, they also get a fair portion of criticism as a potential tool to censoring people with differing opinions.