How to Send a DM to someone on @Twitter you are not following – Troll’s Joy is hanging by a Thread

Trolls on Twitter are probably rejoicing right now.  But their joy will be short lived.

This as on Monday April 20^th 2015, Twitter has decided to once again re-open the ability for anyone to send anyone else a DM (Direct Message) as reported in the article “Twitter opens up direct messaging again, despite abuse fears”, published Apr 20, 2015 by Caitlin McGarry, PCworld and “Twitter makes it easier for strangers to send direct messages”, published April 20, 2015 by Terry Collins, CNET News. 

In the past you and your Twitter friend had to be following each other in order to send DM.

However, Twitter has thrown caution to the winds yet again as they did this back in October 2013 for about a month as noted in the article “New Twitter feature opens direct message floodgates”, published Oct 15, 2013 by Caitlin McGarry, TechHive.

Now its 2015, two (2) years into the future. Humans on Twitter have evolved!

Twitter apparently confident that their voluntary Mute feature, launched on Monday May 12^th 2014 is working as described in my blog article entitled “How to mute someone on Twitter - To Block or to Mute for Silence of the Lambs as The Day the Earth Stood Still”, have decided to place more power in the user's hands to control who they interact with and who can interact with them.

How to Send a DM to someone on Twitter you are not following – Troll’s Joy is hanging by a Thread

In short, you can handle the trolls as it’s your choice if you want them to send you private messages!

To enable the feature, the steps are as follows:

1.      Log into your Twitter account

2.      Go to Settings

3.      Go to Security and Privacy

4.      Scroll down to the bottom

5.      Check the box next to “Receive Direct Messages from anyone”

6.      Re-enter your Twitter Password to accept the changes

7.      Get the pitchfork ready for trolls

In the case of the Google Android and Apple iOS Twitter app, a new button enables this feature. Good to note you are really opting in for this feature; it's not being thrust upon you in the manner that Facebook “dash it pon you without warning”.

After all, you can just do the steps above again and just uncheck the box that says “Receive Direct Messages from anyone” and save yourself the drama as per the advice in the article “Disable the ability for anyone to direct-message you on Twitter”, published April 20, 2015 by Jason Cipriani, CNET News.

However, should that friend that DM'ing you takes advantage of your trust and decided to turn into a troll, once you delete their conversation thread, they're locked from sending you any more DM's in the future as noted in the article “Twitter Expands Direct Messaging”, published APRIL 20, 2015By VINDU GOEL, New York Times.

I’ll be trying out this latest feature. If it's anything like the Mute feature, I'll be using it an awful lot.