Twitter is looking to refine privacy tools by testing a feature that stops certain followers from seeing Tweets without having to block them.
The feature is currently being tested on the web, and it is the first of Twitter’s proposed suite of new privacy tools. According to Svetlana Pimkina, a staff researcher at Twitter: “When social privacy needs are not met, people limit their self-expression, they withdraw from the conversation.”
This is obviously what Twitter wants to avoid, in its help its users take part in more conversations.
Related | Twitter Launches Safety Mode To Automatically Block Abusive Accounts
According to the Tweet announcing the test, users can remove followers from their list by clicking the three-dot menu next to a follower’s name, then select “Remove follower,” to prevent the unwanted account from seeing their tweets on their timeline.
We're making it easier to be the curator of your own followers list. Now testing on web: remove a follower without blocking them.
To remove a follower, go to your profile and click “Followers”, then click the three dot icon and select “Remove this follower”. pic.twitter.com/2Ig7Mp8Tnx
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) September 7, 2021
The new tool improves on the previous blocking feature, which keeps unwanted accounts from viewing a user’s tweets or directly messaging the user. Twitter’s new remove follower feature is a gentler way to create some distance between users.
It represents an alternative to the “soft block” we had till now. With this option, users can manually block and unblock accounts to have them removed from seeing “protected tweets” unless they’re approved to be the user’s follower again.
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