Twitter to Roll Out a Security New Feature That Lets You Remove a Follower Without the Need to Block Them

Sophie Webster, Tech Times 14 October 2021, 08:10 am

Twitter is now rolling out a feature for all of its users that will allow them to remove followers without blocking them entirely. The platform has tested this feature for months.

Twitter's Soft Block Feature

The new safety feature can be very helpful if you wish to avoid the consequences of blocking someone, according to TechCrunch.

Traditionally, if a blocked user checks your profile after you've blocked them, Twitter will let them know that you've blocked them.

However, by removing a follower, users can feel more secure about who sees their tweets without notifying others that they are blocked.

The blocked user might notice that they no longer follow you, but it is a lot better than them seeing that you've restricted them from following you and seeing your contents, The Verge reported.

Twitter is focusing on security, especially after it was the target of a hack in 2020.

Also Read: How to Use Twitter's New Quote Tweet Feature?

Working on Soft Bloc Feature

For years, the social media platform users had created the "soft block" by swiftly blocking and unblocking a follower, which removes them from the follower list. But now, Twitter is making its own feature, according to CNET.

In the tweet about the trail that the platform posted in September, the images show that you have to manually scroll through your follower list and find the user that you wish to remove before you can even take them off your list.

Now, you can also remove a follower by going to their Twitter profile, clicking the three-dot icon, and choosing the "Remove this follower" option. For popular Twitter users with thousands of followers, the feature is useful.

Unrelated to removals of followers, the platform also announced that it is testing a feature that would let you swipe on your timeline between two different news feeds. The first one is sorted by Twitter's algorithm, while the other one is in chronological order.

Twitter already lets its users switch between two feeds, but the test comes when algorithms are scrutinized.

When Frances Haugen, Facebook's whistleblower, testified before Congress last week, she claimed that the ranking content chronologically could help limit the spread of misinformation, toxicity, and violent content on the platform.

Haugen said that Facebook uses an algorithm that promotes content that is more likely to cause a reaction.

Jack Dorsey, Twitter's co-founder, has previously voiced his support for the user's ability to choose from numerous algorithms so they can personally organize the content that they see online.

Twitter has been testing numerous new features in the past few months. Not everything that the platform tested becomes a permanent fixture, but it indicates where the social media company's interests stand.

More recently, Twitter stated that its strategy would include more experimentation compared to the past. That means that it is more ready to shut down features and projects that do not work. This is proven after Twitter has shut down Fleets.

Twitter's Head of Consumer Product, Kayvon Beykpour, said that the platform refuses to tie itself on not working things. They believe that if they are not winding things down, then they are not taking big bets.