Twitter will hide more sensitive content as part of new safety push

The micro-blogging site has announced a set of three new features to protect users from online abuse

The new features will begin rolling out to users in the coming weeks (AFP/Getty Images)

Twitter has announced a new set of safety features designed to protect users from online abuse.

The micro-blogging site has long attracted criticism for a perceived inadequate approach to the issue of trolls ever since its launch, and will be hoping to appease its detractors with three changes.

Twitter will now hide tweets containing “potentially sensitive content” and tweets from blocked and muted accounts from users’ search results, with a feature called ‘safe search’.

The content will continue to exist, but users will only be able to access it by seeking it out specifically.

It’s also going to prevent permanently banned users from creating new accounts and automatically identify and collapse “potentially abusive” and “low-quality” replies in conversations.

Once again, the offending tweets will continue to exist if users want to view them, but hiding them by default should help conversations flow more easily.

“Making Twitter a safer place is our primary focus,” wrote Ed Ho, the site’s VP of engineering, in a blog post. “We stand for freedom of expression and people being able to see all sides of any topic.

“That’s put in jeopardy when abuse and harassment stifle and silence those voices. We won’t tolerate it and we’re launching new efforts to stop it.”

The new features will roll out to users in the coming weeks.