Twitter took a step towards combatting harassment on its platform Wednesday, announcing a series of changes to its policing protocol.
Most importantly, an new "advanced filter" allows you to block Twitter users with default avatars—the multitudes of very angry and very stupid Twitter eggs—from your notifications and newsfeed. You can also block users who have not confirmed their email or phone numbers. Another change is the ability to block specific words, clearing your newsfeed of hate speech.
Twitter also introduced a new algorithm to stop harassment before it is reported, effectively silencing accounts that engage in "abusive behavior," which the company defines as violating terms of service or repeatedly tweeting at non-followers. Abusive users' tweets will only be seen by their followers for a certain period of time, which Recode described as a Twitter "timeout."
Twitter eggs who engage in harassment rarely have even a handful of direct followers. With this new algorithm, Twitter abusers will be forced to shout at those who actually want to listen—in other words, themselves.
