Twitter Rolls Out Ability to Change Who Can Reply to Your Tweet After It's Posted

[MacRumors]

Twitter users will soon be able to change who can reply to their tweets after they've posted them, the company has announced.

Limiting who could reply to a tweet was already an option, thanks to a feature rolled out last year, but users had to choose who could reply before posting the tweet. Now they can make that decision after the post has gone live.

Changing the reply options on a posted tweet is simple enough. Tap the ellipsis (thee dots) menu in the top-right corner of a tweet and select "Change who can reply" from the dropdown.

A "Who can reply?" Card will appear, from which you can choose one of the three same options that are available when composing a tweet: "Everyone," "People you follow," and "Only people you mention."

https://twitter.com/x/status/1415025551773892608

The new option gives users more control over who can interact with their posts, which aims to reduce harassment on the social media platform, although it's not hard to see how it could have the unintended effect of restricting constructive debate and amplifying someone's online "echo chamber." The feature is currently rolling out worldwide on iOS, Android, and the web.

Twitter has recently been previewing a lot more feature ideas before it commits to bringing them to the platform so that it can garner feedback on them. For example, earlier this month it said it was considering letting users post select tweets for "Trusted Friends" only, an idea similar to Instagram's "Close Friends" feature, which lets users share personal Stories more privately.

Article Link: Twitter Rolls Out Ability to Change Who Can Reply to Your Tweet After It's Posted

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Sounds like Twitter is finally giving control of its customers. Hopefully, they don't start charging for every time you tweet.

 

[flowsy]

Twitter - if the YouTube comment section just isn't enough torture!

 

[SirAnthonyHopkins]

Tap the ellipsis (thee dots)

Megan Thee Dots?

 

[Cleartz]

And yet still no edit button after a tweet has been posted.

 

[Minxy]

What happens to a reply that's up but doesn't fall under the new allowed group category.
This isn't the solution to harassment, it really is just going to make Twitter a worst haven for people who want to surround themselves with the same opinion. Echo chamber indeed.

 

[CarpalMac]

What happens to a reply that's up but doesn't fall under the new allowed group category.
This isn't the solution to harassment, it really is just going to make Twitter a worst haven for people who want to surround themselves with the same opinion. Echo chamber indeed.

Came here to post this ^^^

Basically a great way of controlling a narrative.

 

[HacKage]

And yet still no edit button after a tweet has been posted.

An edit button is completely impractical. If you have made a mistake, then you should delete and retweet. Picture the following scenario with an edit button:

I tweet "Like and retweet this picture of a cat for good luck" or something as mundane as that. I then edit that tweet a few weeks later to say "Like and retweet this picture...." and I have edited the tweet to show animal torture or changed the message to be that you support pedophilia. You could then have hundreds of thousands of people who had posted that on their own timeline, and possibly don't know about it as it's weeks later.

The only way an edit button would work is if a tweet is edited, it then removes all comments or likes up until that point, as the person who liked or commented on the post did so based on it's original content. At this point, you would have been as well deleting the original tweet and tweeting it correctly.

There is an argument that Facebook allows an edit function, and a edit history. This differs from Twitter though where I can see all the posts a user has liked or retweeted. Many employers check social media of job applicants, it is completely unreasonable to expected everyone to have to continually check their previous likes and retweets incase someone has decided to edit them.

 

[Techwatcher]

An edit button is completely impractical. If you have made a mistake, then you should delete and retweet. Picture the following scenario with an edit button:

I tweet "Like and retweet this picture of a cat for good luck" or something as mundane as that. I then edit that tweet a few weeks later to say "Like and retweet this picture...." and I have edited the tweet to show animal torture or changed the message to be that you support pedophilia. You could then have hundreds of thousands of people who had posted that on their own timeline, and possibly don't know about it as it's weeks later.

The only way an edit button would work is if a tweet is edited, it then removes all comments or likes up until that point, as the person who liked or commented on the post did so based on it's original content. At this point, you would have been as well deleting the original tweet and tweeting it correctly.

There is an argument that Facebook allows an edit function, and a edit history. This differs from Twitter though where I can see all the posts a user has liked or retweeted. Many employers check social media of job applicants, it is completely unreasonable to expected everyone to have to continually check their previous likes and retweets incase someone has decided to edit them.

And here it is, a common sense answer.

 

[nikaru]

I would rather prefer having a soccer team kicking me between the legs, than entering again in Twitter.

 

[happydude]

and how about the ability to edit tweets after they're posted...?

- edit: ope, read the devastatingly good point above about potential for nefarious tweet edits after amassing a following. guess it makes sense. and, humans are horrible.

 

[freejack]

Twitter was always the premiere bastion of groupthink. This just further solidifies that position.

 

[CarpalMac]

An edit button is completely impractical. If you have made a mistake, then you should delete and retweet. Picture the following scenario with an edit button:

I tweet "Like and retweet this picture of a cat for good luck" or something as mundane as that. I then edit that tweet a few weeks later to say "Like and retweet this picture...." and I have edited the tweet to show animal torture or changed the message to be that you support pedophilia. You could then have hundreds of thousands of people who had posted that on their own timeline, and possibly don't know about it as it's weeks later.

The only way an edit button would work is if a tweet is edited, it then removes all comments or likes up until that point, as the person who liked or commented on the post did so based on it's original content. At this point, you would have been as well deleting the original tweet and tweeting it correctly.

There is an argument that Facebook allows an edit function, and a edit history. This differs from Twitter though where I can see all the posts a user has liked or retweeted. Many employers check social media of job applicants, it is completely unreasonable to expected everyone to have to continually check their previous likes and retweets incase someone has decided to edit them.

They could implement a time & character limited edit, for typos and only for say, 30mins after the original posting. Forums have had this functionality for years.

So, allow 1 or 2 chars to be changed, and apply a dictionary filter on it to not allow the words to change from "nosi" to "nazi", or a positive to a negative, like adding "un" before a word, for example.

It wouldn't be at all difficult to implement and a version history could help stop the inevitable minority who will still try and find a way to abuse it.


Or alternatively - ditch the echo chamber cesspool entirely. That was my personal choice.

 

[happygodavid]

After all the misinformation, disinformation, conspiracy theories, and vitriol I've seen on Twitter, especially in the last year, I really hope this feature doesn't come to fruition. People, especially malicious ones, need to be fact-checked on their public proclamations of "truth." "Giving control" to users is a misnomer; all this does is silence reason and critique, further dividing people into tribalism and self-indulgent confirmation bias.

 

[lazyrighteye]

Have we not learned ANYTHING the last five years??
We don’t need less accountability. We need much, much more. This “feature” sounds like a nightmare and what I can only hope will spell the end for Twitter. #wishfulthinking

 

[1262385]

And yet still no edit button after a tweet has been posted.

Isn’t that a premium feature?