Twitter confirms it is experimenting with a ‘Hide Replies’ feature

Twitter has confirmed plans to start experimenting with a new ‘Hide Replies’ feature beginning in June. Twitter wants to add this feature so users feel they have more control over their conversations online.

This will be an experimental feature, which means the company can change how it functions or scrap the idea completely.

Twitter is testing replies moderation. It lets you to hide replies under your tweets, while providing an option to show the hidden replies pic.twitter.com/dE19w4TLtp

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) February 28, 2019

Users will still be able to view hidden tweets by using a menu option.

That doesn't sound like moderation, it sounds like mark sensitive. If it works that way that's ok but still I wonder how many people click the show sensitive now, how many fact checks will be silenced by user lazyness

— CircuitSwan 🇺🇸in🇨🇦 (@CircuitSwan) February 28, 2019

One Twitter user pointed out how this sounds more like marking sensitive content than actual moderation.

However, this makes sense as politicians or public figures started hiding comments, that could be an issue. Donald Trump would probably over-use this feature.

‘Hide Replies’ is rolling out globally.

Additionally, Twitter is updating its rules within the next few weeks so that they’re more condensed and easier understand.

Within Twitter’s announcement, the company talked about its efforts in creating a healthier service by flagging and cutting down abusive tweets and spam and keeping its users safe is its top priority.

Twitter will also make it easier for people to share their specific issue when reporting a tweet, which should allow for Twitter to more quickly take action. Twitter will also add more notices and context to why certain tweets remain on the service even if they do break the company’s rules.

Check out the full blog post here.