Twitter iOS App Now Lets All Users Limit Who Can Reply to Their Tweets [Update: Now Available]

[Carnegie]

Surprised that the article didn't mention the background of this decision.

Two years or so ago, Trump blocked users who disagreed with his tweets. They sued. Trump and Twitter lost.

“The appeals court upheld a lower court decision from last year that says the president conducts government business on his personal Twitter account, so all Americans must be able to access it.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that President Trump cannot block critics from his Twitter account. The decision comes at a time when many government officials are using social media platforms to communicate with the public.”

Trump Can't Block Twitter Followers, Federal Appeals Court Rules

The appeals court upheld a lower court decision from last year that says the president conducts government business on his personal Twitter account, so all Americans must be able to access it.

www.npr.org

See also

Trump's Twitter blocking violates Constitution, appeals court rules | CNN Politics

An appeals court said Tuesday that President Donald Trump violated the First Amendment by blocking users on Twitter.

www.cnn.com

Trump Can't Block People On Twitter He Disagrees With, A Federal Appeals Court Ruled

Because Donald Trump uses his Twitter account for official purposes and creates a "public forum," he can't exclude people based on their views, the 2nd Circuit ruled.

www.buzzfeednews.com

Opening up blocking to all users could well be Jack Dorsey's and Twitter's way of appeasing Trump and getting around the federal Appeals Court decision.

Note: Including such information is NOT a political observation, but a statement of fact and a matter of journalistic integrity. It's important for readers to understand the context and history. To treat it as if it were merely a company's decision to help its users is to tell only part of the story (and possibly an untrue part at that), distorts what's going on, and even takes a corporate-political side!

President Trump and Twitter didn't lose. President Trump and certain White House officials lost. Twitter didn't lose, it wasn't a party to the case.

All users having the ability to block other users wouldn't fix President Trump's legal problems when it comes to blocking users. Indeed, users already had the ability to do what President Trump did. The problem was that President Trump (or those assisting him) was acting as a government official when he (or they) blocked users. As such, he isn't allowed to do some things which private citizens are allowed to do.

Other Twitter users having the ability to block people doesn't make it legally okay for President Trump to create a public forum and then discriminate in that public forum based on viewpoint. The government can't do that, it's long been considered a violation of the First Amendment.

I'd also make clear that I'm not making a political observation here. I'm explaining why what you suggest doesn't fit. It wouldn't make sense for this functionality to be motivated by a desire to appease President Trump and allow him to get around the Second Circuit's decision. As the panel said:

The government’s response is that the President is not acting in his official capacity when he blocks users because that function is available to all users, not only to government officials. However, the fact that any Twitter user can block another account does not mean that the President somehow becomes a private person when he does so. Because the President, as we have seen, acts in an official capacity when he tweets, we conclude that he acts in the same capacity when he blocks those who disagree with him. Here, a public official and his subordinates hold out and use a social media account open to the public as an official account for conducting official business. That account has interactive features open to the public, making public interaction a prominent feature of the account. These factors mean that the account is not private.

 

[amartinez1660]

Ah yes, that wont expand the echo chamber effect that Twitter already heavily experiences...

DONT AGREE WITH ME? CANT REPLY TO ME. ONLY MY OPINION IS RIGHT!

Is there a way to know who you can’t reply to?
I would love a setting where I could “auto block” anybody that limits the replies. I almost never reply myself but it’s a nice metric to have.

The two times a week I end up going to twitter, usually of interesting links being sent to me, I spend 10 mins checking the actual interesting stuff and 10mins blocking instances of virtue signaling, blanket statements and downright annoying schmuck one liners whose sole purpose is to try to give you a bad day. But it’s actually infinite.

 

[Tech198]

"Update: Some users are reporting that the feature is not accessible to them, despite updating the Twitter app to the latest version, suggesting it is still rolling out.
Update 2: Twitter said that the release notes suggesting limited replies to tweets were available to everyone were incorrect. The feature has not rolled out to all users, and it still remains limited to a small number of Twitter users."

So I guess that means it's "rolling out", not "rolled out"

 

[[AUT] Thomas]

Ah yes, that wont expand the echo chamber effect that Twitter already heavily experiences...

DONT AGREE WITH ME? CANT REPLY TO ME. ONLY MY OPINION IS RIGHT!

EXACTLY THIS!
Any Tweet using this, even for a brief moment needs to get a big fat stamp saying "limited reply options".

If this is used by politicians or other people of public interest it's a direct violation of freedom of speech IMHO unless the very rare goal of the tweet really is a publicly held discussion between a small crowd (where public opinion is not asked).

 

[newyorksole]

I definitely agree you will never sway the OP, but dissenters could sway others on the fence. If all they allow are tweets in agreement, that will falsely sway those people.

That’s true. What a time we’re in... Lol.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I am glad I got rid of Twitter (even though I only used it for business contacts) seeing how they are making a point to censor posts they don’t agree with (on a variety of subjects).

If one were trying to tame a stalker or troll seeking to harass, i can see this kind of feature being handy.