Threads users can now exercise more control over who can quote their posts.
This builds on a feature that already allows Threads users to limit who can answer to their posts (competing services like X and Bluesky offer similar response controls). Threads outlined its plans for quote control last month, and last night Adam Mosseri – who runs both Threads and Instagram for parent company Meta – announced that the feature was available to all users.
“I hope this helps make Threads a more positive place and gives people more control over their experience,” Mosseri wrote.
As of Saturday morning, the option to limit quotes doesn’t appear when I log into Threads on my computer’s web browser, but it is available in the Threads mobile app. The quote and reply controls appear to be grouped into a single drop-down menu, where users can open the conversation to “Anyone” or limit it to “Profiles you follow” or “Mentioned only.” These controls should make it more difficult to dunk on others, when users quote someone else’s post in order to make them look stupid.
Image credit: Son
“But dipping is good!” you say. “I need to be able to tell my followers when someone on X/Threads/Bluesky/Mastodon posted something stupid, offensive, or stupid.
Fair enough: When I’m not the one being destroyed, I appreciate a good dunk as much as the next person. Fortunately, the ability to screenshot and share someone’s post while explaining why it’s stupid/offensive/otherwise objectionable still exists. This just makes it less likely that a succession of dunks will make the original post go viral.
And that means that, in theory, the original poster can happily parade anywhere anyone on the internet might say mean things about it.
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