Twitter Announces New Safety Features In Latest Effort To Protect Users

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Most people who have spent time on Twitter have seen the harassment that can take place within the platform - users taking advantage of the ability to remain anonymous and using it to intimidate, threaten, dox, and otherwise abuse people in a very personal and targeted fashion. In an effort to combat the often rampant abuse on its platform, Twitter announced four new safety features this month. The changes come in large part from the guidance they’ve received from the Twitter Trust and Safety Council (of which NNEDV is a member) and feedback from victims of harassment and abuse on the platform.

  • In the past, even when someone was permanently banned from Twitter for their abusive behavior, it was relatively easy for them to create a new account and continue their harassment. Twitter is now taking steps to identify those people and stop them from being able to create new accounts.

  • The creation of a safe-search mode that will remove Tweets from your search results that contain harmful content, and Tweets that are created by accounts you have blocked or muted. You can turn safe-search mode off and on so that you can still find the abusive content if you want or need to (to monitor an abuser's behavior, collect evidence, or make a report to Twitter, for example).

  • Abusive, confrontational replies that are created by new accounts without many followers, and that are directed at a person who doesn’t follow the account, will be pushed to the bottom of conversations and housed in a section called “less relevant replies.” The replies will still be viewable by those who want to see them, but won’t interrupt productive, civil conversations.

If an account holder has blocked you, but is continuing to mention you in abusive or harassing Tweets, you will now be able to report those Tweets.

We’re pleased to see Twitter take these steps to make their platform a safer place for survivors of harassment and abuse, and we look forward to seeing continued advances in promoting civility and safety online.

For more information on how to increase your safety and privacy on Twitter, be sure to check out our guide to Safety & Privacy on Twitter for survivors of harassment and abuse. It provides tips and guidance for increasing privacy on the social network, and for how to respond to others who misuse the platform.