TWITTER TESTS AUTOBLOCK

Twitter is launching a feature that will temporarily “autoblock” accounts for potentially harassing behavior or harmful language, the platform announced Wednesday.

If a user turns on the new “safety mode” feature, accounts that send harmful or uninvited replies and mentions will be autoblocked for seven days, meaning they will be unable to follow the user’s account, see their tweets or send them direct messages, according to Twitter’s blog post.

Twitter’s safety mode technology will take “existing relationships into account” — meaning accounts a user follows or frequently interacts with will not be autoblocked.