Twitter to Launch 'Hide Replies' Feature in June

[MacRumors]

Twitter today confirmed plans to begin experimenting with a "Hide Replies" feature starting in June, which will provide Twitter users with more control over the replies that are visible following a tweet.

As TechCrunch points out, this has the potential to be controversial because the original person who tweets will be able to control which replies are visible in a conversation thread.

The feature will be experimental, so it could ultimately be tweaked or scrapped entirely based on how users react to its implementation. Twitter has said that hidden responses wouldn't show up automatically, but would be viewable by others using a menu option.

Along with announcing the new feature, Twitter today also shared details on its efforts to create a "healthier service" through cutting down on abuse and spam.

Twitter says that it has suspended three times more abusive accounts within 24 hours of a report compared to the same time last year, 2.5 times more private information has been removed, and there's been a 45 percent uptick in efforts to suspend users who create a new account after a suspension.

In the future, Twitter says it plans to introduce additional safety-related features, such as making it easier for Twitter users to share specifics when reporting abuse, adding more notices within Twitter about rule enforcement, and debuting rules that are easier to understand.

Article Link: Twitter to Launch 'Hide Replies' Feature in June

 

[cfurlin]

Please Twitter, just die already.

 

[OriginalClone]

Please Twitter, just die already.

What did twitter do to you? How does it’s existence even affect you?

 

[AngerDanger]

Nice, I've always wanted to curate reactions to my opinions.

 

[jsmith189]

Doesn't this kind of defeat the purpose of Twitter? Showing only people that agree with you in a thread doesn't really seem like an effective method of conversation.

 

[omihek]

I remember being 5 years old and only wanting to hear opinions that agreed with my own. Whenever Mommy didn't agree that we should have ice cream for dinner it really bothered me. Wish I could have had a feature like this back then. Thank you Twitter, all the 5-year-olds of the world will love you for this!

 

[wmitch]

I just want to know when they are going to allow you to edit a tweet?
I know it's a complex technology but I think they could probably do it if they tried REAL hard!

 

[jhromeror]

So politicians and corporations will be able to hide unfavorable comments? Why not put two comment sections like AGREE and DISAGREE so everyone can choose their echo chamber.

 

[Pelea]

GOOD, I hate posting tweets and having people be mean to me by saying stuff that isnt nice or by disagreeing with me.

I should only see messages that I like

 

[TonyC28]

So someone can post something on Twitter, which obviously means they are looking for responses (attention), and then they get to hand-pick what the responses will be?

 

[thefarang]

Doesn't this kind of defeat the purpose of Twitter? Showing only people that agree with you in a thread doesn't really seem like an effective method of conversation.

Isn't it how most social media works? If someone posts something on your Facebook wall/feed, can't you hide or delete it? Same with moderation on YouTube. If you post something that violates MR's TOS, won't they moderate away your comment?

As someone that puts up with a lot of abusive people on Twitter as part of my job, I think the problem they're trying to address is the mobbing, where a relatively small number of people try to stir up outrage at you or your company.

Like, we had one influencer-type who was angry because we wouldn't give him free stuff so he used his audience to create all of this negative backlash all over our Twitter feed. Post-incident analysis showed that 75% of the people bashing our product, were posting from accounts where the person listed themselves as residing outside of the US, thus, they had never used our product and were simply jumping on the bandwagon.

It really does put people/companies in a weird situation where people can extort you, openly and publicly, but Twitter does not give you the tools to defend yourself. If you respond, you are basically highlighting this person to all of your followers who may not have even been aware of the controversy. So, your best option is to say nothing, which often adds fuel to the fire for not responding (silence = guilt in internet arguments).

Ultimately, moderation tools will either be used honestly or they won't and those that choose to moderate so that only people that agree with you or support you are allowed to comment, you'll end up destroying your own brand/reputation. But if you are able to use these tools to stop people from abusing you or trying to extort things from you, the only people that are going to get upset by it are jerks anyway.

 

[iReality85]

As
TechCrunch
points out, this has the potential to be controversial because the original person who tweets will be able to control which replies are visible in a conversation thread.​

Doesn't this kind of defeat the purpose of Twitter? Showing only people that agree with you in a thread doesn't really seem like an effective method of conversation.

So politicians and corporations will be able to hide unfavorable comments? Why not put two comment sections like AGREE and DISAGREE so everyone can choose their echo chamber.

To be honest, I don’t see how this is controversial at all.

One of the frequent points made, often in relation to politics and usually made by the left in response to the right complaining about being censored, is “you don’t have free speech on a private platform.”

Which is true. Your freedom of speech on Twitter is whatever Twitter decides it is. By logical extension, no one has a right to have their tweet shown on Twitter, whether that’s by Twitter’s own doing or an account user hiding replies.

It probably would go a long way toward de-escalation. The reason we’re in this place is because people increasing take an I’m right you’re wrong stance with both parties dug in on just about all social issues these days. They become raging arguments on social media as opposed to civil discussions. And online discussions — which tend to be anonymous by their very nature — lend themselves to bad behavior which would not happen in a face to face situation.

That said, I have no horse in this game. I don’t use Twitter. But I believe account users should absolutely be able to hide others’ replies, whether that’s people they disagree with or trolls in general.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Twitter is useful for at the moment news as it happens. Faster than FB on a global level, they don’t limit nudity and have better controls over hate crimes and similar content than the rest of social media providers. It still needs to expand and a lot quicker in the features it can/should offer.

 

[psac]

I'd rather be able to stop seeing other people's likes.

 

[slowpoke]

It rules how twitter's CEO, who is a Very Fine Person, is focused on introducing changes that seem to be specifically calculated with the aim of preventing other Very Fine People from getting their feelings hurt when normal human beings drag them for their trash views. It owns extremely hard and we definitely do not live in Hell World

 

[mijail]

As someone that puts up with a lot of abusive people on Twitter as part of my job, I think the problem they're trying to address is the mobbing, where a relatively small number of people try to stir up outrage at you or your company.

Interesting take.

But I have the inverse one: when I am having problems with companies (and government agencies!) who will not react to private messages, I now go public and complain in Twitter. All of a sudden they start paying lip service to how important their customers are and please share with them in private the details of the problem so they can help me be a happy customer. It's lovely to answer "I already did in <date> and you ignored me, what is going to change now?" and see them scramble to make up for their previous poor service.