Twitter is testing an interesting new feature that will allow users to hide replies to their tweets. The new Hide Tweet feature was first discovered by Jane Manchun Wong, who stated that the new feature would also allow users to view hidden replies under tweets.
A senior program manager at Twitter then explained the company’s plans about the new Hide Tweet feature, stating that the feature is still under development.
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The hide tweet feature would allow you to hide any reply to your tweets, but Twitter would give users an option to view hidden replies. So even if you do hide a certain tweet, others would be able to view the hidden replies through the View Hidden Tweets option.
And even though that might be useful for hiding abuse and similar tweets, it also opens up an opportunity for people to silence their critics, for example. On a platform like Twitter, that is a massive problem. You can, obviously, view the hidden tweets — but most Twitter users are likely not even going to be aware of the option, or even be bothered to manually view the hidden tweets. So even though this feature sounds really useful, it ultimately may not be the best idea.
“We think the transparency of the hidden replies would allow the community to notice and call out situations where people use the feature to hide content they disagree with. We think this can balance the product experience between the original Tweeter and the audience,” a Senior PM at Twitter said, explaining the situation.
Instagram offers a similar feature where you can completely remove comments under your posts, by the way.
The feature is obviously still under development, and I think Twitter really needs to surface the fact that someone has hidden tweets within the Replies section under tweets for it to be completely transparent. Else, it’s unlikely most users would even bother to manually view hidden tweets, or even be aware when someone has hidden replies to their tweets.
skane2600
<p>Given the fact that a significant number of people on social networks feel they should be able to post anything they choose regardless of its controversial nature without anyone being "rude" enough to question them, this could be a popular feature. Of course, it would be more popular if there wasn't a work-around.</p><p><br></p><p>People don't know or forget that they can setup more private groups were they can preach to the choir in echo-chamber harmony.</p>