The feature will only be available to a small group of English-language users on iOS, Android and Twitter.com.
Twitter is rolling out a new feature called Safety Mode that temporarily blocks certain accounts for seven days if they are found insulting users or repeatedly sending hateful remarks. The feature will only be available to a small group of English-language users on iOS, Android and Twitter.com, the company explained in a blog post on Wednesday. Users will also be blocked if they are sending “repetitive and uninvited replies or mentions,” according to Twitter senior product manager Jarrod Doherty. “When the feature is turned on in your Settings, our systems will assess the likelihood of a negative engagement by considering both the Tweet’s content and the relationship between the Tweet author and replier,” Doherty said. “Our technology takes existing relationships into account, so accounts you follow or frequently interact with will not be autoblocked. Authors of Tweets found by our technology to be harmful or uninvited will be autoblocked, meaning they’ll temporarily be unable to follow your account, see your Tweets, or send you Direct Messages.” Doherty added that unwelcome Tweets have gotten in the way of the kinds of conversations Twitter wants its users to continue having, prompting the creation of the Safety Mode tool and other features added in recent years to protect people.
