How To Mute Twitter Trolls: Company Adds New Notification Filters

Want to have more control over your Twitter notifications? A new feature rolled out Monday by the social media giant allows users to mute accounts that don’t follow you, were just created and several other customized options.

The new feature aimed at giving users more control over unwanted comments and harassment can be found by going to Settings > Notifications > Advanced Filters in order to automatically mute users who don’t follow you, have a brand-new account or haven’t confirmed their information with Twitter. Specifically, the filter offers six new options to “Mute notifications from people:” You don’t follow, Who don’t follow you, With a new account, Who have a default profile photo, Who haven’t confirmed their email, and who haven’t confirmed their phone number.

Read: Twitter Troll Problem: Company Lays Out New Anti-Abuse Policies

The added control over your own feed comes after Twitter’s March roll-out of filters for users who you don’t follow, those who only have a default “egg” profile photo and users who haven’t confirmed their phone and email contact information with Twitter.

"We've already seen an impact from these updates," Ed Ho, Twitter's vice president of engineering, wrote in a March blog post.

“Making Twitter a safer place is our primary focus," he added. "We stand for freedom of expression and people being able to see all sides of any topic. That’s put in jeopardy when abuse and harassment stifle and silence those voices. We won’t tolerate it and we’re launching new efforts to stop it.”

However, company representatives have declined several news outlets’ requests for feedback on the effectiveness the existing mute options are having for users. Twitter also has not provided details on how long a “new account” would have to be in existence before the filter stopped blocking them from communication with those who have the feature turned on.

"For much of our safety work, we can't share too many details or people will try to game the system," a Twitter spokesperson wrote to CNET.

Twitter’s Safety account, which tweeted out the announcement of the new filters today, is continuing its push to “inspire a healthy space for sharing ideas” across the social network. The company launched the #TweeSurfing program on June 29 to “raise awareness of online safety” in the wake of widespread calls to halt malicious trolling and cyberbullying over the past few years. Twitter’s various programs include anti-bullying efforts, decreasing mental health stigmas and even raising awareness about child sex trafficking.

Twitter began collecting user feedback in December 2016 on how to improve the social network experience. CEO Jack Dorsey’s tweet soliciting responses found that abuse was one of the most ubiquitous complaints. Hate speech, spam and general abuse on the platform have become one of the company’s top priorities.