Twitter’s New (Lack Of?) Privacy Feature In DMs

Twitter previously would not allow you to send a direct message to someone who was not following you back, for example, celebrities you want to stalk and bombard with virtual love notes.  Not anymore…

The new Twitter update allows you to send messages to anyone, whether you follow each other or not. Twitter has said in their blog that this new upgrade, which was launched yesterday, could help larger firms/institutions and celebrities to have conversation with people who they do not know about possibly mutually beneficial agendas. Twitter outlined these general benefits for every ‘tweep’:

• You can start a conversation with anyone who follows you.

• Some accounts, including businesses, have enabled a setting to receive Direct Messages from anyone. You can send a Direct Message to these users even if they don’t follow you.

• You can enable a setting to Receive Direct Messages from anyone on the Security and privacy settings page.

• In one-on-one or group conversations, anyone in the conversation can send Direct Messages.

• In group conversations, anyone in the conversation can add people.
  In both group and one-on-one conversations, you cannot be in a conversation with someone you block.

At first you may think that you will have to deal with an awful amount of spam but Twitter has steps you can take to avoid that. The security and privacy settings tab on your Twitter page will allow you to opt into receiving direct messages from anyone or just the people you follow:

If your device is running on Android or iOS you will see a Direct Message button on your Twitter app for users who have opted into receiving messages from anyone.

So you can relax, atleast Twitter is giving you control over who messages you. It’s not as bad as we thought initially. To read more on the basics of using Direct Messages on Twitter click here.