Twitter Adds Safety Mode to Automatically Block Online Harassment

Twitter has introduced today Safety Mode, a new feature that aims to block online harassment attempts and reduce disruptive interactions on the platform.

Once enabled on a Twitter account, Safety Mode is designed to automatically and temporarily block users for seven days when using harmful language in replies, quote tweets, and mentions in your conversations.

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Rolling out to a small group of beta testers

In the beginning, the company will test Safety Mode with a small group of Twitter users in the coming months with plans to further expand the pool of beta testers.

If you were selected as one of the beta testers for this new Twitter feature, you could turn on Safety Mode right now by going into your “Privacy and safety” settings.

“Safety Mode is a feature that temporarily blocks accounts for seven days for using potentially harmful language — such as insults or hateful remarks — or sending repetitive and uninvited replies or mentions,” said Jarrod Doherty, Product Lead at Twitter.

“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.

“Our technology takes existing relationships into account, so accounts you follow or frequently interact with will not be autoblocked.”

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Since accounts tagged by Safety Mode as harmful because their tweets will be auto-blocked, they will temporarily be unable to follow accounts they targeted, see their tweets, or send them direct messages.