Using Twitter, you probably know that you can address any public user by quickly writing @ to their username. However, the bad news is that this feature is very easy to abuse.
Twitter is working on the way to control these mentions. According to privacy researcher and engineer Jane Manchun Wong, the company is testing the ability to completely block @ mentions or limit them to people who already follow you.
Twitter privacy designer Dominic Camozzi also reported that the feature was in development. However, according to The Verge, he later removed that confirmation. Giving users more control over @ mentions is consistent with other recent Twitter privacy features, such as limiting replies and the ability to exclude yourself from a thread. While this may make Twitter less open, controlling mentions will ultimately make the service more user-friendly for users, who inevitably become targets for trolls.
