Twitter is asking for feedback on a new feature letting users “unmention” themselves as an anti-abuse tool and to help users control unwanted attentions
The arc that follows validates the approach: after web testing with a “leave this conversation” option, Twitter rolled Unmentioning out to all users on all devices by mid-2022, then pushed further toward user-controlled mention permissions. The pattern is Twitter shifting moderation from platform-enforced rules toward per-user controls over who can reach them.
First-order effects
Users targeted by pile-ons or unwanted attention gain a self-serve exit from conversations containing their handle, reducing reliance on blocking or reporting to escape notification floods.
Twitter gets direct user feedback before building, de-risking a feature aimed at its most reputationally sensitive problem: abuse and harassment.
Second-order effects
If unmentioning works as designed, abusers lose the ability to force engagement by tagging targets, weakening a common harassment tactic and potentially cutting the volume of reports Twitter must triage.
Competing platforms face pressure to match granular mention controls as table-stakes safety features, since a control that ships on one network becomes an expectation elsewhere.
The trend: Social platforms are moving abuse mitigation from centralized enforcement toward per-user controls over who may initiate contact, with Twitter's unmention-to-mention-permissions sequence as the template.
Sometimes you want to talk, and sometimes you just ... don't. Check out these early concepts that could help control unwanted attention on Twitter. Feedback, especially at this beginning stage, is invited (and wanted)! 🧵 https://twitter.com/...
Notifications Going further, if someone you don't follow @ mentions you, you'll get a special notification. If you unmention yourself from there, the Tweet author will not be able to mention you again. https://twitter.com/...
Unmention yourself I want to make it easier to untag yourself from a Tweet or conversation you don't want to be involved in. Just pick “Unmention yourself from this conversation” from the more info menu and the link to your profile will be removed. https://twitter.com/...
Thread. Please give @_dcrc_ feedback, which he has invited. Do you have blocked accounts that @ you all the time anyway? @Twitter are considering a feature that will let you, the user, proactively prevent it, rather than reporting and crossing your fingers :) https://twitter.com/…
Really interesting new Twitter features: — stop people you don't follow from @ mentioning you — remove your @ mentions from conversations Worth looking through (Twitter privacy exec) Dominic's thread here. https://twitter.com/...
This would be a great idea. Nice way to exit from a conversation that you aren't any longer a part of, but that you keep getting notifications for because people don't untag you in their replies. https://twitter.com/...
Good thread here from Twitter's privacy designer with some great concepts in the works - finally you might actually be able to untag yourself from conversations and stop other people from mentioning you! https://twitter.com/...
if past experience is any indication, this feature would be immediately used by, e.g., police departments to prevent critics from talking about them https://twitter.com/...