Twitter is one of the most exciting places to have a conversation on the internet. It is open to everyone, and you're sure to get diverse viewpoints on the opinions you share.

Unfortunately, toxicity is a big problem on the platform. Your simple, good intentioned tweet could devolve into a war of words and verbal abuse. It doesn't have to end that way. Here's a quick guide on how to stop replies on Twitter to ensure ill-intentioned replies do not come under your tweets.

Why Stop Replies to Your Tweets?

twitter icon on smartphone

Most times, the most interesting tweets on Twitter are in the replies section. From savage memes and rib-cracking jokes to comments that are totally unrelated to the original tweet; the replies are the soul of Twitter. So why would you want to stop replies?

Unfortunately, replies aren't always exciting. While humor is a common theme, verbal abuse, racial slurs, and other forms of toxicity come up way too often. While the official Twitter moderation team tries to sanitize replies to tweets, keeping track of replies to millions of tweets is not an easy task. You may also have trolls who are repeatedly targeting your replies, even when you tweet something unrelated to what initially attracted their ire.

And then there's the issue of Twitter bots. These are basically automated accounts that drop spam replies like website URLs or preprogrammed responses aimed at swaying the opinion of Twitter users. Well, you don't have to put up with any of that.

How to Stop Replies on Twitter

Why is Twitter very toxic

Although Twitter doesn’t have a clear-cut option to stop replies to tweets, there's a workaround you can use to achieve similar results. Here’s how to go about it:

  1. Once you're ready to tweet, tap the blue compose icon on the Twitter app to create a tweet.
  2. Fill out your tweet as you'd normally do.
  3. Just below the typing area, locate and tap on Everyone can reply to select who can reply to your Tweet.

There are three options:

  • Everyone—This is the default setting, and it means every Twitter user that sees your tweet can potentially reply.
  • People you follow—Only Twitter accounts you follow or mention with an @ in your tweet can reply to your tweet.
  • Only people you mention—Only Twitter users you mention with an @ in your tweet can reply.
  1. To restrict replies to only People you follow, choose the People you follow option. To stop everyone from replying, choose the People you mention option but don't mention anyone in your tweet. If choose to mention someone, don't start a tweet with their username, this is a common tweeting mistake than means only the person you mention will ever see the tweet.
  2. Once you're done, tap Tweet in the top right corner of your screen to go live.

If you want to restrict replies on a tweet that's already live.

Locate the tweet on your Twitter timeline and tap on the three-dot icon in the top right corner of the tweet item and then tap on Change who can reply and select any of the three options.

Even when you restrict who can reply to your post, anyone that sees your post can still retweet with a comment.

Control Your Twitter Conversations

Meaningful conversations, guided by mutual respect and proper decorum are a great way to have fun and birth new ideas. However, whenever you sense that things might spiral out of control, it is important to proactively take action to stop this. Twitter gives you the power to sanitize your Twitter replies, use it to your advantage.