Question from Andy: I’ve been using Twitter for several months and I’ve become pretty active on there. I usually post at least a dozen tweets every day.
The problem I have is lots of spammers have started replying to my tweets with spam offers of all types.
Some days there are so many spam replies that it’s hard to wade through them to read the real replies.
Is there any way to block the spammers from replying to my tweets?
Rick’s answer: Andy, I don’t know of a way to block all spam replies to your tweets because Twitter doesn’t do a great job at determining which accounts, tweets and replies are actually spammy in nature, but they do provide several filters you can enable that can potentially reduce them to a more manageable number.
Just follow the steps below for the device you’re using to enable the relevant filters.
If you use Twitter in a browser on a laptop or desktop computer:
1 – Sign into your Twitter account.
2 – Click the More link in the left-hand column, then select Settings and privacy from the drop-down menu.
3 – In the middle pane, click Notifications.
4 – In the right-hand pane, click Filters.
5 – Make sure the “Quality filter” option is checked.
Note: The default Quality filter is far from perfect but it does help weed out at least some of the most blatant spam.
6 – Click Muted notifications and then select the types of accounts you want to mute.
Note: I recommend that you leave the first two options unchecked but check all of the others.
If you use the Twitter app on a mobile device:
1 – Sign in to your Twitter account.
2 – Tap your profile photo in the top-left corner of the screen, then select Settings and privacy from the drop-down menu.
3 – Tap Notifications.
4 – Tap Filters.
5 – Make sure the “Quality filter” option is checked.
Note: The default Quality filter is far from perfect but it does help weed out at least some of the most blatant spam.
6 – Tap Muted notifications and then select the types of accounts you want to mute.
Note: I recommend that you leave the first two options unchecked but check all of the others.
That’s all there is to it. While the settings changes you just made won’t stop all spam replies from showing up under your tweets, they should hopefully reduce the number you do see to a more manageable level.
I hope this helps, Andy. Please let me know how it works out for you. Good luck!