One of the great things about Twitter is that you can contact any public user by simply mentioning their username with a @ symbol. One of the worst aspects of Twitter is how easy it is to abuse that feature. However, it appears that the bird network is working on a way to control those mentions. According to Jane Manchun Wong, a privacy researcher, and engineer, the company is testing the ability to block @ mentions entirely or limit them to people who already follow you.
Twitter is working on letting you control who can mention you on Twitter pic.twitter.com/UemMCGcy70
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) October 13, 2022
Twitter privacy designer Dominic Camozzi initially confirmed the feature was in the works, but he later deleted that confirmation, according to reports. Giving users more granular control over @ mentions is consistent with Twitter’s other recent privacy features, such as reply limit and the ability to unmention yourself from threads. While it may appear that Twitter is becoming less open, mention controls will ultimately make the service a better experience for users who are inevitably targeted by trolls.
