Twitter is experimenting with its most aggressive anti-harassment options up to now. The firm will begin testing a brand new account setting that mechanically blocks accounts utilizing “potentially harmful language.” Twitter first previewed the function again throughout its Analyst Day presentation, however is now beginning to make it accessible to “a small feedback group.” It’s not clear when it is likely to be accessible extra broadly.

When enabled, Safety Mode will proactively block accounts which are more likely to be the supply of harassment for a interval of seven days. Twitter says the system is designed in order that accounts of individuals or ceaselessly work together with gained’t be blocked, however trolls will.

“Safety Mode is a feature that temporarily blocks accounts for seven days for using potentially harmful language — such as insults or hateful remarks — or sending repetitive and uninvited replies or mentions,” Twitter writes in a weblog publish. “When the feature is turned on in your Settings, our systems will assess the likelihood of a negative engagement by considering both the Tweet’s content and the relationship between the Tweet author and replier.”

While Twitter has taken a number of steps prior to now to handle its long-running harassment downside, Safety Mode is notable as a result of it takes extra of the burden off of the individual being harassed. Instead of manually blocking, muting and reporting problematic accounts, the function ought to be capable to catch the offending tweets earlier than they’re seen.

Because it’s nonetheless in a comparatively early stage, Twitter says it’s more likely to make at the least some errors. And customers are capable of manually assessment the tweets and accounts flagged by Safety Mode, and reverse defective autoblocks. When the seven-day interval ends, customers will get a notification “recapping” the actions Safety Mode took.