You Can Now Mute Unwanted Twitter Talk

Twitter has come under fire for not doing enough to combat hate speech on its platform. In its October earnings call, the social media giant promised to make more strident moves towards addressing the problem of Twitter trolls.

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It released a new feature yesterday, which allows a user to more easily hide conversations they do not wish to see. In addition to blocking unwanted users, one can now mute certain words and conversations as well. According to its new rules, muting a word will mute its hashtag as well. Words, phrases, usernames, emojis, and hashtags up to 140 characters can be muted.

The company has also been in the news for banning the accounts of several alt-right activists on Tuesday. Radical white separatists, like Richard Spencer, Paul Town and John Rivers have been banned from using the social media tool.

Many have criticised the move as being too weak, saying that a user can simply create another account if his previous one is banned. Twitter's Vice-President of trust and safety told Quartz that the company will roll out more changes in the coming months.