Twitter is reportedly testing a new feature that allows users to set limits on who can reply to their tweets—before posting them.
The option, announced at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, is another step toward curbing online abuse.
Handpick conversation “participants” from one of four categories: global (anyone), group (people you follow and mention), panel (people you mention), or statement (just you).
Tweets from a public account remain visible to everyone, but only the selected audience can reply, according to Geek.com sister site Mashable.
“It allows us to create a whole new format for conversation that didn’t exist before,” Twitter product manager Suzanne Xie said during a CES press event.
On the floor in Las Vegas, Mashable’s Karissa Bell noted that you can not retroactively cache replies, so you must remember to change the settings before sending a tweet.
Trolls can, unfortunately, still hijack conversations by retweeting with comment.
This move comes just after Twitter introduced the ability to hide replies: Users can still see and engage with sequestered statements by tapping the grey icon that will appear in the corner of tweets.
Online harassment is an ongoing problem for social networks: Twitter and Instagram have taken steps to limit bullying, including employing machine learning techniques and guilting users into removing nasty comments.
“Part of the goal of the experiment is seeing what the outcomes are,” Twitter product lead Kayvon Beykpour told Mashable. “How does that influence the ratio situation? How does that influence how people use good conversations?”
The feature is currently available only to a small group of test users; early feedback will help determine whether it eventually gets rolled out to the public.
Twitter did not immediately respond to Geek’s request for comment.
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