Twitter Is Making It Easier To Control Who Can Reply To Tweets

Twitter plans to release a new feature that will make it easier for users to reduce the number of abusive or toxic replies to their tweets, the company announced at CES. The revelation was made by Suzanne Xie, the company's director of product management. In addition to limiting who is allowed to reply, the company will make it possible to completely block replies on some tweets.

It's no secret that Twitter has a sizeable percentage of toxic users who use the platform as their personal attack vehicle, using it to spread hatred or pointlessly attack users for vast and often benign reasons. The company has gradually introduced a number of tools designed specifically to address these users, including the ability to mute and block accounts.

Starting in the first quarter of this year, Twitter will start to test a new feature that adds control over replies directly to the compose window, according to The Verge. Users will see the option to make the tweet a 'statement,' which means that no one will be able to reply to it.

Alternatively, users will be able to limit replies to only people who were mentioned in the tweet, to the people who are mentioned and the people you follow, or to make the tweet open to replies from anyone who uses Twitter. The company plans to make this feature available to all of its users later on in 2020 following the test.

At least during this test, users will still be able to quote tweets that have limited replies in order to comment on them, but it is possible that Amazon will change this ability after seeing how its test works out. It is possible that substantial changes may have been made to the feature by the time it launches for everyone, but only time will tell whether that'll be the case.