Twitter Introduces Safety Mode To Auto Block Users Posting Harmful Tweets. Here Is How It Works

Users can find details about the Tweets flagged through Safety Mode and view the list of temporarily blocked accounts at any time. 

Representative Photo: Getty Images | Twitter Blog

New Delhi: Twitter has introduced a new feature called Safety Mode to reduce disruptive interactions. It will temporarily block accounts that are using potentially harmful language, for seven days.

"Our goal is to better protect the individual on the receiving end of Tweets by reducing the prevalence and visibility of harmful remarks," Jarrod Doherty, Sr. Product Manager at Twitter wrote in a blog introducing the feature.

What is Safety Mode, How does it work?

As mentioned, Safety Mode is a feature that temporarily blocks accounts for seven days for using potentially harmful language. Such tweets can include insults or hateful remarks, even repetitive and uninvited replies or mentions. 

When the feature is turned on in safety settings, Twitter will assess the likelihood of a negative engagement by analysing both the Tweet’s content and the relationship between the Tweet author and replier. 

Authors of tweets deemed harmful or uninvited will be auto blocked which means they will temporarily be unable to follow your account, see your Tweets, or send you Direct Messages.

"Our technology takes existing relationships into account, so accounts you follow or frequently interact with will not be autoblocked," Twitter informed.

Users can find details about the Tweets flagged through Safety Mode and view the list of temporarily blocked accounts at any time. 

(Photo: Twitter Blog)

In case of erroneous blocking, Safety Mode changes can be undone at any time in the Settings. 

"We’ll also regularly monitor the accuracy of our Safety Mode systems to make improvements to our detection capabilities," the Twitter blog stated.

It was further informed that the feature is currently rolled out to a small feedback group on iOS, Android, and Twitter.com, beginning with accounts that have English-language settings enabled.

Safety Mode can be enabled through the Privacy and safety section under Settings.