One of the great things about Twitter is that you can contact any public user by simply mentioning their username with a @ symbol. One of the worst aspects of Twitter is how easy it is to abuse that feature.
However, it appears that the bird network is working on a way to control those mentions.
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According to Jane Manchun Wong, a privacy researcher and engineer, the company is testing the ability to block @ mentions entirely or limit them to people who already follow you. (In other words, don’t @ me.)
Twitter is working on letting you control who can mention you on Twitter pic.twitter.com/UemMCGcy70
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) October 13, 2022
According to The Verge, Twitter privacy designer Dominic Camozzi initially confirmed the feature was in the works, but he later deleted that confirmation.
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Giving users more granular control over @ mentions is consistent with Twitter’s other recent privacy features, such as reply limit and the ability to unmention yourself from threads.
While it may appear that Twitter as a social media platform is becoming less open, mention controls will ultimately make the service a better experience for users who are inevitably targeted by trolls on the app.