Recently, Twitter has introduced Safety Mode, an advanced feature that intends to block online harassment attempts and reduce disturbing communications on the platform. Once it is enabled on a Twitter account, Safety Mode is created to automatically and shortly block users for around seven days when using destructive language in quote tweets, replies, and mentions in the conversation.

Introducing a Small Group of Beta Testers

Initially, the organization will test Safety Mode with a small group of Twitter users in the coming months with strategies to further wider the pool of beta testers. If a user were selected as one of the beta testers for this advanced Twitter feature, then the user could turn on Safety Mode right now by navigating the “Privacy and Safety” Settings.

“Safety Mode is a feature that partially blocks accounts for seven days for using probably harmful language—such as harm or hateful remarks – or transmitting repetitive and uninvited replies or mentions,” said Jarrod Doherty, Product Lead at Twitter.        

“While the feature is active in your Settings, our systems will assess the likelihood of a negative engagement by considering both the Tweets’ which content and the relationship between the Tweet author and the replier.

“The technologies take the current relationships into the account, so the accounts you follow or recently interact with will not be autoblocked.” Since the account tagged by Safety Mode is harmful because their tweets will be auto-blocked, they will temporarily be unable to pursue accounts they targeted, see their tweets, or send them direct messages.

Revealed in February

Twitter revealed it’s planning to introduce the Safety Mode feature to automatically block harmful accounts at its Analyst Day presentation on February 25, 2021. As the company said at the time, the Safety Mode “automatically blocks an account that comes to break the Twitter rules, and mute the accounts that might be utilizing harming, strong language, name-calling, or hateful remarks.”

While the Safety Mode analyzes unwanted attention on a user who has it enabled, it will send a notification saying that it “detected some harmful or spammed replies” to one of their tweets.

This new ultimate feature is part of a larger Twitter effort to block any malicious reverts on its platform, as shown in the company’s Q3 2019 earnings letter when Twitter said that it “gave people more control over their conversation on Twitter with the start of author-moderated reverts.”

The company also stated that it enhanced its ability “to proactively identify and remove harmful content, with more than 50% of the Tweets for harmful content in Q3 take down without a bystander or first-person report.”

One year ago, Twitter will also introduce a reply-limiting feature that permits all the users to choose who can reply to their tweets, thus limiting unwanted replies.