Twitter Will Allow Users To Limit Replies On Their Tweets

Twitter Inc. TWTR is rolling out a new feature to let users limit who can reply to their tweets on the social media platform. The company announced the update at the CES 2020 event in Las Vegas on Wednesday, TechCrunch reported.

What Happened

The users will be able to choose who can reply to their tweets based on four levels. These include Global -- everyone on Twitter can respond, Group -- only the people followed by the person can answer, Panel -- only those tagged in the specific tweet, Statement -- no one can reply.

The feature is expected to be rolled out by March.

"We want to help people feel safe participating in the conversation on Twitter by giving them more control over the conversations they start," the company said on Twitter.

Why It Matters

The San-Fransisco based company has been experimenting with new features to fight harassment on its platform for a while. In November last year, the company implemented a feature to let users hide certain replies to their tweets.

Twitter is also funding an independent team to build a decentralized standard for social media, to fight "modern-day challenges facing social media, including abuse and false information," the company's CEO Jack Dorsey announced in December.

Twitter's latest feature could be aimed at fighting harassment and abuse, but it could be used to limit political discourse, according to TechCrunch.

Politicians could limit the replies to just their followers, making it seem like that there's universal support for their policies, the publication noted.

Twitter's stand at fighting the spread of false information and abuse on its platform has been in stark contrast to that of rival social media giant Facebook Inc. FB, which has vehemently opposed any political censorship.

Price Action

Twitter's shares closed 1.57% higher at $33,05 on Wednesday.