A new Twitter DM feature is being tested in iOS app, to the dismay of many users

A new Twitter DM feature is being tested, designed to make it easier for people to send a direct message in response to a tweet – but many users think it’s a terrible idea …

Twitter Support made the announcement.

For when you want to reply directly to a Tweet’s author, we’re making it easier to DM them from your timeline to start a conversation. Now testing a DM icon on Tweets with some of you on iOS.

As The Verge noted, public defender Eliza Orlins immediately raised concerns.

Please don’t do this.

One extra step of having to go to someone’s profile to send a DM cuts back on harassment. This is almost never about “starting a conversation,” when people are sending unsolicited DMs.

At least give us a safety feature to not allow this on our tweets.

Some disagreed.

But when someone wants to harass you, they’re going to tap that one extra tap to DM you anyway.

But many shared the concern.

“The point is that it makes it even easier to harass people. We shouldn’t have to shut down DMs to not be harassed. This is a social issue, a platform issue.”

“If someone really wants to break into your house, your flimsy door lock isn’t much more than an annoyance. That doesn’t mean you should make it easier for bad actors by leaving it unlocked in the first place.”

“A man was responsible for this change. No doubt.”

“Second the safety feature. As well, best practice would be make this safety feature defaulted to off, not on.”

“Please work on ways to prevent harassment not encourage it. This will only make your platform less safe from women and minorities.”

“Twitter continuing to be the worst.”

Twitter said that users would continue to have the ability to close their DMs.

9to5Mac’s Take

It does seem likely that this will increase abusive direct messages, and it’s hard to see a balancing benefit. We would certainly support calls for the feature to be optional, and for the default setting to be off.

Photo: Ravi Sharma/Unsplash