If someone is sending you harassing or abusive messages on Twitter, you can block them. Unfortunately, this is a manual method and if you’re someone with a lot of followers, this could be a rather tedious process, but that will change soon as Twitter will be automatically blocking and muting those people for you.
During Twitter’s Analyst Day presentation, the company announced that they will be introducing a new “safety mode”. With this feature enabled, users will no longer have to manually block and mute these types of accounts as Twitter will do it for you.
According to Twitter, “Automatically block accounts that appear to break the Twitter Rules, and mute accounts that might be using insults, name-calling, strong language, or hateful remarks.” This will be based on accounts that might come across as being abusive or spammy and in addition to blocking and muting, they will also limit how those accounts can engage with your Twitter account for seven days.
Over the years, Twitter has tried to come up with ways to combat abuse on its platform. More recently, the company brought back a “review” feature which allows users to rethink whether or not they want to post something that might be done in the heat of the moment, potentially cutting back on online arguments and abuse.