Staying on Elon Musk’s Twitter? How to Avoid or Shut Down Toxic Conversations

PCMag
PC Magazine
Published in
7 min readNov 17, 2022
(Credit: Chesnot / Getty Images)

Twitter offers several ways to help you deal with nasty conversations and abusive users.

By Lance Whitney

Twitter can be a hotbed of toxic conversations on almost any topic. In the hours after Elon Musk took over the company, for example, racist posts flooded the site. Unless you’ve locked down your account, it’s easy for someone to post insulting comments or offensive replies to your tweets, but there are ways to limit these types of interactions.

You can unmention yourself to flee a conversation that’s taken a turn in the wrong direction; limit who can reply to one of your tweets; create a Twitter Circle to restrict a tweet to just specific followers; or limit a tweet to specific Twitter communities you’ve joined.

You can also block specific accounts so they can’t follow or message you. Further, you can report a tweet that you feel goes against Twitter guidelines. Let’s check out all your options.

Block or Mute an Account

By manually blocking an account on Twitter, you prevent their tweets from appearing in your timeline and you stop them from viewing your activity on the site. Users will know if you block their account when they visit your page. To avoid this, muting them will remove their tweets from your timeline, but won’t restrict their access to your tweets. For either option, click the ellipsis icon next to the account name or one of its tweets. From the menu, select Mute or Block. If you choose to block the account, you’ll be asked to confirm your action.

To manage the accounts you currently have muted or blocked, go to More > Settings and Support > Settings and privacy > Privacy and safety > Mute and block. Select Blocked accounts to view them, where you can choose to unblock an account. Select Muted accounts to view them, where you have the option to unmute an account.

Report an Account

You can also report an account to Twitter if you feel a user is too toxic to remain on the platform. Click the ellipsis icon next to the account and select Report. Follow the reporting process to note who is being targeted by the account and the type of behavior you are flagging.

If Twitter finds your report valid and justified, the account could be removed from the site. However, the account in question will most likely remain and you will simply be told to block it.

Unmention Yourself

You’re stuck in a Twitter conversation that has gotten toxic or pointless, and you no longer wish to be a part of it. Unmentioning yourself lets you exit that conversation so the other participants can no longer reply to you or tag your account. To take this action, hit the ellipsis button to the right of any reply and select Leave this conversation.

A pop-up window explains that by leaving a conversation, your username will still appear in the conversation but will be untagged from the original tweet and all replies. People will no longer be able to mention you again in this conversation. You’ll also stop receiving notifications of any further replies (but you’ll still be able to see the conversation). If you’re cool with all of that, click Leave this conversation.

Limit Who Can Reply to Your Tweets

By default, everyone on Twitter can reply to a tweet you post. But in some cases, you may want to limit who can respond. Before you publish a tweet, click the Everyone can reply link and change that option to People you follow or Only people you mention.

If you choose Only people you mention, then take a moment to tag the people you want to be able to respond. When you post a tweet set to People you follow or Only people you mention, the reply icon will be grayed out for everyone not in either category. However, even those who can’t reply will still be able to view, retweet, quote retweet, share, and like your tweet.

Limit a Tweet to a Twitter Circle

A Twitter Circle is a subset of followers for whom you can limit specific tweets. You can create your Circle if you click the Everyone button from the “What’s happening?” field. Find the Twitter Circle option in the menu and select the Edit link.

You can then add users to the group. Click the Recommended header to see a list of people who follow you, then select anyone you want to add. Otherwise, you can just search by their account name. Click the Add button next to a specific account to put them in your Twitter Circle.

When done, click the Twitter Circle heading to review the accounts you’ve added. Click Remove for any accounts you decide you don’t want in your circle. Click the X button to close the Twitter Circle window and return to Twitter.

Now when you go to tweet, select Everyone and make sure it is set to Twitter Circle. When you post your tweet, only those included in your Circle will be able to see or reply to your tweet.

Limit a Tweet to a Twitter Community

A Twitter Community is a group of people on Twitter who share a common interest—personal, professional, or otherwise. You can create your own Twitter Community and invite other people to it or join a community led by someone else. Afterwards, you’re then able to limit a tweet to a specific community.

When you go to write your tweet, click the Everyone button and select the Twitter Community to which you want to direct the tweet. When you send your tweet, only people in that community will see it and be able to respond to it.

Tweet Privately to Just Your Followers

Don’t want random accounts talking to you? Turn your account private to limit your audience to just the accounts that follow you. Do this by going to More > Settings and Support > Settings and privacy > Privacy and safety > Audience and tagging. Check the box for Protect your Tweets.

A notification explains that protecting your account will hide your previous tweets. To confirm this action, check the box next to Protect my account. After protecting your account, your past and future tweets will be visible only to your followers.

Additionally, people won’t be able to retweet your tweets or follow your account without your approval. Your tweets won’t appear in external search engines, such as Google, but they can be searched in Twitter by your followers. If someone tries to view your account, they’ll see a message indicating that your tweets are protected.

Block an Account With Safety Mode

Safety Mode is a feature that temporarily blocks accounts for seven days for using potentially harmful language or sending repetitive and uninvited replies or mentions. With this feature turned on for your account, Twitter analyzes the content of incoming tweets—as well as the sender’s account—to determine if a specific tweet should be blocked.

Safety Mode hasn’t yet rolled out for everyone globally, so you may or may not be able to activate it for your account. To see if it’s available, go to More > Settings and Support > Settings and privacy > Privacy and safety. If Safety Mode appears, check the box to turn it on.

Originally published at https://www.pcmag.com.

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