Safety online has been the priority of social media platforms for quite some time now, especially after ages of being criticized for their inaction or inability to clamp down on abuse and failing to make the internet a safe place for young and old users alike. Twitter has been working on such features in recent times, the latest of which is the ability to remove a follower without blocking them.
That’s right; soon you will be able to stop followers from seeing your tweets without actually blocking them (and thereby avoiding uncomfortable confrontations). You can do this by going to your profile, clicking on “Followers,” clicking on the three-dot icon, and selecting “Remove this Follower.” This feature is currently being tested on the web and will be rolling out in the near future.
This comes soon after the new Safety Mode that Twitter had unveiled, which temporarily auto-blocked abusive accounts. No doubt, Twitter is lending an ear to the aggrieved parties this time as it is trying to allow users to have a better and safer experience on its platform. The latest privacy tool seems to be a step in the right direction.
Keep in mind that this feature is different than directly blocking someone – while blocking an account prevented them from viewing your tweets and sending you messages, this feature is more of a remote unfollow feature. This is a step up from the “soft block” individuals have had to do so far, that is, manually blocking and unblocking people.
Celebrities and common users have often been subject to trolling and abuse on Twitter, something that had branded the popular micro-blogging site as a toxic platform. Twitter has been working hard to get rid of this brand in recent times with its new privacy tools and safety features, which are designed to make the platform a much safer place and reduce online abuse. Its latest improvement to its privacy tools will enable users to have more control, with features such as archiving tweets after 30, 60, or 90 days, hiding liked tweets, and leaving conversations.
