How to mute someone on @Twitter - To Block or to Mute for Silence of the Lambs as The Day the Earth Stood Still

“In the same way you can turn on device notifications so you never miss a Tweet from your favorite users, you can now mute users you'd like to hear from less. Muting a user on Twitter means their Tweets and reTweets will no longer be visible in your home timeline, and you will no longer receive push or SMS notifications from that user”

Twitter commenting on a blog post on the implementation of the Mute Feature on Monday May 12^th 2014

If you’ve been using Twitter, you’d have noticed all the cool New Features I’ve been talking about as I’d described in my blog article entitled “How to Download Twitter user Pictures as Twitter makes Facebook Timeline changes”.

But one special shout-out must be made to Mobile Twitter users, who must be very special to Twitter, as the Mute Feature was made especially for them as reported in “Twitter turns on Mute Feature” published May 12, 2014 11:33 AM PDT by Daniel Terdiman, CNET News and “Twitter announces a mute option to silence annoying users”, published May 12, 2014 By Mike Flacy, Digitaltrends.

Unless you had a SMM (Social Media Management) software running on your Desktop, Laptop or smartphone such as Hootsuite as described in my Geezam blog article entitled “Social Media Management Tools help you to manage your Social Networks all at once”, Muting was something that Twitter didn’t have as a baked-in Feature.

Mute is sorta equivalent to Facebook’s Feature where you can stop receiving updates from a Friend without having to unfriend them as described further in “Mute annoying Twitter friends”, published May 12, 2014 12:40 PM PDT by Jason Cipriani, CNET News.

Up until now, there was no polite way to Mute the posts of an annoying Twitter poster; you just have to politely grin and bear it as they flooded your Twitter feed with their unwanted junk and send you annoying push or SMS notifications along as pointed out in “13 reasons to mute people on Twitter”, published Tuesday 13 May 2014 13.44 BST by Samuel Gibbs, The UK Guardian.

You could have blocked them with the Block Feature which Twitter had all along, but that not only stops you from receiving their Tweets but also blocked them completely from the Twitter Service, meaning they couldn’t see your Tweets either. Or interact on Twitter for that matter; the Twitter equivalent of Facebook’s Unfriend Feature!

Now you have choice.

How to Mute someone on Twitter – Silence of the Lambs as The Day the Earth Stood Still

As a Twitter Mobile user, you can now choose to totally block someone whose Tweets you dislike or you can selectively Block or Mute an annoying Twitter follower. The difference being that Mute allows you to just stop receiving their Tweets while they can still see yours. They can’t stalk you anymore, but they can know what you’re posting and they’re still allowed on Twitter, making it fair all around!

With this new Mute Feature which rolled out a week ago on Monday May 12^th 2014, Twitter’s transition to be more like Facebook in appearance and functionality is now complete.

It’s time for the DIY (Do it Yourself) part. Here’s how to Mute an annoying Twitter without being Rude. I’ve always found some people posts annoying….so I’m gonna Mute them and they’ll never be none the Wiser.

The procedure is explained quite clearly in the article “How to Mute Someone on Twitter”, published May 13, 2014 by Alyssa Bereznak, Tech Columnist, Yahoo! News for both Mobile and Desktop Users.

For Desktop, smartphone and Tablet users, simply click on the More option (represented by three dots in Twitter for smartphone and Tablets!)on the tweet of the individual you wish to Mute and the option will appear for you to select. 

Optionally, to mute ALL Tweets from those persons, got to their profile and click on the Gear wheel and select the Mute option. Muted persons have a Red Gear wheel as a reminder, so that you can go back and unmute them later, should you choose to do so.

I’d demonstrate it in this article, but at the time of writing, my Twitter page doesn’t seem to support the Mute Function as shown above, despite having activated the new Twitter Timeline Feature. All I have is the options as shown at the time of publishing this article on Monday May 18^th 2014 at 7:20 pm. Is this a case of one Twitter for Americans and something different for those non-American?

Twitter Mute and the December 2013 Riots – Choices is Good as We didn’t start the Fire

Twitter’s Mute Feature has quite a tumultuous history.

The Mute Feature, which everyone has calmly accepted thus far, was originally incarnated as an adjustment to the Blocking Feature. Back then in December 2013, Twitter had changed the User Policy and the Blocking Feature so that instead of you being unable to see their Tweets and that unfortunate individual persons being totally blocked from seeing your Tweet, they could still see the Tweets you posted while you were spared from having to endure theirs.

Bad Move Twitter!

Blocking was ok before then; this now meant that the annoying Tweeter could stalk you and even retweet your Tweets or modify them WITHOUT your knowledge. Blocking was way safer, as they were totally phased out of Twitter existence.

Hence the Twitterati began lighting Bonfires and piling wood high, figuratively speaking, ready to burn Twitter Management at the Stake for their Heresy as stated in “Twitter turns its block function into a mute button”, leading to user revolt, published December 12, 2013 07:52 pm By Josh Lowensohn, The Verge and “Change to Twitter's blocking policy has users up in arms”, published December 12, 2013 3:47 PM PST by Daniel Terdiman, CNET News.

So Twitter had to backtrack, as can be noted in this excerpt from their Twitter Blog in December 2013, quote: “We believe this is not ideal, largely due to the retaliation against blocking users by blocked users (and sometimes their friends) that often occurs. Some users worry just as much about post-blocking retaliation as they do about pre-blocking abuse. Moving forward, we will continue to explore Features designed to protect users from abuse and prevent retaliation”.

After all, stalkers on your Social Network can only harm you based on what you post. Ultimately YOU are responsible for what you post as I’ve argued in my blog article entitled “FaceBook now gives Teenagers the power to make Public Posts - How making everything Public on Facebook improves their Advertising Revenue” as the handy guide reproduced above suggests!

Fast forward to May 2014 and the Mute Feature is back. But this time, as I’ve mentioned before, the Blocking Feature is STILL intact. But you now have the choice to Mute that annoying Twitter follower or persons you’re following without being seen as rude.

Happy Muting….if you have the Mute Option, that is….!