Twitter has revealed plans to launch a new reply blocking feature on its site. The new feature was unveiled by the Twitter Director of Product Management, Suzanne Xie at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, US.
Twitter reveals plans to offer new comment options for its users.
With the new update, user can determine who can comment on their tweets. They will choose from the Global, Group, Panel, or Statement options. https://t.co/72mxjzPgzh#Technews #Africa #technology— Tech Gist Africa (@techgistafrica) January 8, 2020
The move to reduce abuse and harassment on Twitter has been on for a while now. There were instances when the microsite had to hide replies on its platform which further permitted Twitter users to block unwanted replies. This new feature is part of its effort to reduce harassment and foster healthy interaction on the site.
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The new feature offers four primary categories of conversation participants that a user can apply to his/her tweet. They include:
- Global category- This allows anyone to reply to tweets shared by a Twitter user.
- Group Reply- This permits people who follow a certain Twitter account to post a direct reply to the tweet.
- Panel- This allows only people mentioned in a tweet to reply to the tweet.
- Statement reply- This bar everyone from replying to the tweet.
Suzanne noted that the reply blocker features are meant to address ‘pile on’( an act of joining people to criticize others unfairly). It will help people feel safe when participating in a conversation on Twitter. It also gives them control over the people that will participate in their conversation.
The reply blocker feature is currently undergoing development. It will appear when a user is composing a tweet to share on the microsite. The initial testing of the feature will begin soon and might launch before the end of the first quarter of 2020.