Twitter is testing out a "hide replies" feature for all US users, which promises to help stop harassment and spam from entering your Twitter conversations. But on the flip side, the same feature potentially gives users a tool to censor each other.
You can use the feature on your own tweets, and to the replies that they attract. Don't like a particular response? Click on the drop down menu to the reply (found in the upper right corner) and select hide reply.
The offending content will be lifted from the original tweet, and dumped into a separate section called "hidden replies." The public and you can still view these hidden replies, but it'll require clicking a separate box called "View replies the Tweet author has hidden."
The company developed the feature to give users more control over their Twitter experiences amid ongoing concerns that interactions and debates on the social media platform can become toxic. "With this test, we want to understand how conversations on Twitter change if the person who starts a conversation can hide replies," the company said in a blog post on Thursday.
Twitter has already been testing the feature in Canada and the initial trials have exhibited some "positive trends." "People mostly hide replies that they think are irrelevant, abusive or unintelligible. Those who used the tool thought it was a helpful way to control what they saw, similar to when keywords are muted," the company said.
There's also hints the same test feature can rein in rude conduct. According to the company, when affected users saw that their replies had been hidden, about 27 percent of them said they would reconsider how they'd interact with other members of the Twitter population in the future.
"These are positive and heartening results: the feature helped people have better conversations, and was a useful tool against replies that deterred from the person's original intent," Twitter added.
Less drama is good. Users who've tried the feature say it's a valuable tool to stop bullying and racism over the platform. But the same feature is sparking concern it'll allow users to silence one another and bury important remarks made over Twitter. In the past, Republicans and President Trump, in particular, have accused the platform of censorship and bias against conservatives.
However, Twitter is upbeat about the test feature, which is also arriving to users in Japan. "People in these markets use Twitter in many unique ways, and we're excited to see how they might use this new tool," the company added in today's blog post.