In a logical extension to who can reply to your tweets feature that Twitter rolled out sometime back, the social media platform is now exploring a new tool that can allow you to prevent other users from mentioning you without blocking them. Further, the putative feature is also structured to allow you to preclude specific users from mentioning you in their tweets.
The feature, which is still in the works, is being contemplated to help users avoid unwanted attention, and limit negative experiences on their timeline.
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Twitter trying to help users to keep the hate mill at bay
Twitter's product designer Dominic Camozzi, who dropped a hint about the possible feature through a series of screenshots on his Twitter timeline, described it as being “early concepts”.
In his Twitter thread, he said: "Unmention yourself. I want to make it easier to untag yourself from a Tweet or conversation you don't want to be involved in. Just pick “Unmention yourself from this conversation” from the more info menu and the link to your profile will be removed."
Basically, the “unmention" tool is similar to untagging yourself on Facebook.
Dominic added: "Going further, if someone you don’t follow @ mentions you, you’ll get a special notification. If you unmention yourself from there, the Tweet author will not be able to mention you again."
The feature can also intimate users when they are mentioned too many times. They can review the tweets and change settings to stop the situation from escalating further.
Unlike limiting replies, which is set on before you send a tweet, the "unmention" feature can be activated post-Tweet.
Dominic had a few other screenshots of features that basically help users to be in more control of their timeline and stay away from the hate mill that abounds on Twitter.
Twitter trying to give users some additional handles to decide how they're mentioned is a welcome step in this age and time of cancel culture.
No word is out on if and when these features will be rolled out by Twitter.
