Twitter Prepares a Reply Filter to Prevent You from Seeing Unwelcome Replies

Probably Twitter is the social media that cares the most about the balance between freedom of speech and potential misinformation. The recent innovation it is about to bring is the Reply filter that allows users to skip replies marked as potentially harmful or offensive. The new feature, though, has its limitations.

If you start a thread that attracts much attention, the chance of receiving an offensive or misleading reply tends to one. Reacting to these replies, where you care enough to write your own reply or want to just ignore it, can be distracting. If you choose not to see them, this may save you a lot of nerve. More than that: if you’re sensitive to this sort of conversation, this option will enable you to act like these replies never appear.

In fact, though, these marked replies will be seen to other users that read the thread. They can even respond to them, as these replies are not blocked. They are just hidden from you, so you can focus on those more meaningful and constructive. This, though, may be just what you want deep inside: engaging users even with replies you don’t like, while you have a reason to ignore them. This doesn’t apply, though, to any reply you wouldn’t want to see: just to those found offensive or untrue by Twitter’s algorithms.

It's still not clear when this feature will become available. The screenshot showing how this will probably look was published by Jane Manchun Wong with some explanation about how she sees it. She also uploaded a screenshot hinting that users will be able to choose who can react to these marked replies.

Would you welcome such a feature and use it to stay unaware of toxic replies? Or would you rather see every reply, including those you don’t like? Is your account popular enough to attract a lot of toxic users? Tell us what you think about it in the comments!