Now Twitter web users can "softly block" annoying followers

Twitter is rolling out a new feature that allows any user on the web to remove a follower without blocking them, an action also known as "soft blocking."

To gently block a follower, go to your profile, click followers, click the three-dot menu next to a follower, and then click the "Remove this follower" option. (You can see what that option looks like in a Twitter image at the top of this post.) A follower you delete will not be notified of the change.

A soft block is different from a block in that it allows a user to continue viewing your tweets and send you direct messages, but they will not see your tweets in your feed. That being said, when you remove a follower, they can follow you again if they want to. The function can be useful if you don't want to do a full lock but want to create a space for another user. This new Twitter method is a bit easier than the old one, which required manually blocking and unblocking someone.

The ability to remove a follower is the latest feature on Twitter to give users more control over their experience on the platform to help curb abuse and harassment. In September, the company began testing a new Security Mode feature that automatically locks abusive accounts temporarily, although it is unclear when it will be rolled out more widely.