Twitter has started to offer some of its most critical anti-harassment tools to every user, not just verified users with the blue checkmark.
Now, users will be able to limit notifications they see to only the people they follow. This will remove any tweets from strangers and those who use Twitter to abuse and harass. Twitter has also expanded the availability of its quality filter, which aims to “improve the quality of Tweets you see by using a variety of signals, such as account origin and behavior.”
Two simple settings to give you better control over your Twitter experience. https://t.co/pEJuMUhCYs pic.twitter.com/jmFd0rDoV6
— Twitter Support (@Support) August 18, 2016
This way, newly created accounts or those with suspicious activity will have far less reach and will be automatically filtered out of your timeline and notification tab.
The features, which were announced by the social media company in a blog post, are not exactly new. Rather, Twitter is now committed to providing its entire user base with the same set of tools it’s offered to high-profile users for years. The company has for quite some time allowed the verified accounts of celebrities and industry workers in media, sports, finance, and tech to filter notifications in a similar fashion to the new settings option.
The expanded availability of these tools is part of a longstanding effort at Twitter to remedy its harassment problem. For years, Twitter has indirectly abetted abuse by either refusing to acknowledge the problem or only offering stopgap solutions while verified users enjoy more effective features.
