Update (28.March.2013): So, it looks like a bug… and – thankfully – not a policy!
To clarify: A bug caused mobile users to see mentions only from accounts they follow. It’s now been fixed. Apologies for the inconvenience.
? Support (@Support) March 27, 2013
Original post:
Around noon today, I noticed a few tweets that had my Twitter handle as a @mention did not appear in my mobile (Twitter’s default android app), but I recalled seeing them on my desktop (Twitter web and Tweetdeck web). This is odd!
Did a search now and noticed a LOT of people talking about some new Twitter rule. The rule, according to a lot of people’s assumption goes like this – if someone does not follow you, he/she cannot see your @mentions (of their handle)! Here are some search results.
What’s the point of this new twitter?!? I love seeing my mentions! #WeWantTheOLDTwitterBACK
? KhloéKardashianOdom (@KhloeKardashian) March 27, 2013
So there is a new Twitter policy that says you cant tweet people (like celebs) that don’t follow you? WTF is the point of Twitter then?
? Sarah Faulkner (@iCollectGhosts) March 27, 2013
Twitter’s new policy means verified accounts can’t see your tweets if they don’t follow you. I feel the urge to punch a wall.
? Niall Horan(@MarryNiallHoran) March 27, 2013
“The new twitter rule is that if celebs don’t follow you, they can’t see your tweets to them.” can u imagine kanye west’s mentions?
? bella (@lbrjustin) March 27, 2013
Can @twitter please confirm exactly what the new rule is, is is just mobile apps and what can people/celebs do to see their mentions.
? Jo Lambert (@Jo_RW_lambert) March 27, 2013
What the. The new rule of twitter mobile is that you could only see the mentions of people following you.. U RUINED OUR DREAMS.
? Inah Labung (@inahlabung) March 27, 2013
Such a lovey rule, twitter. Now I can’t see mentions unless from people whom I follow. GREAT -_-
? Ratna Chalida (@chalidaratna) March 27, 2013
NEW @twitter rule : Verified acc will not be able see the mentions that not be followed. Go to hell!
? Selena Gomez (@SelenitaQueen) March 27, 2013
@evalongoria Eva can U see the all the mentions for your fans?please reply it’s important,this new twitter rule is making fans insane
? bizarredJackE (@bizarredJackE) March 27, 2013
Right now, it looks like this is affecting mobile versions only. There’s no update from Twitter on this yet, except a tweet around 6:47pm today that says, in a broad way,
We’re hearing that some users may be experiencing issues viewing their @replies and mentions. Our engineers are looking into it!
? Support (@Support) March 27, 2013
And then there are many who say that there is a new setting that you have to enable – “Change your settings to view ANYONE who mentions you”, it seems!
Since there is no update from Twitter, let me not extrapolate too deeply. But one thing’s for sure – for celebrities who are phenomenally annoyed by trolls who keep @mention’ing them pointlessly, this is going to be a boon.
But, at the same time, they’d not be able to get out of their circle of friends – almost like a, ‘if I cannot see you, I can’t hear you’ on Twitter. That completely beats the purpose of Twitter, as an open platform, even if this is a opt-in setting.
If they opt-in for this, they would not hear rah-rahs about them as much as they can’t hear people abusing them and criticizing them (thankfully, automated sentiment analysis online is a mess!), unless they do a manual search using Twitter’s native search function (which has been getting a lot of updates lately, incidentally) with a ‘@theirhandle’. But I’m sure a lot of completely vain celebrities will love this option, if Twitter has really cooked this new setting.
I personally see this as massively pointless and would immediately opt out of this. I can only hope this is an option and not baked by default into Twitter. At present, I cannot see any new option in my settings. But yes, Twitter’s default mobile app (at least on Android) already has a notification setting that allows you to see @mentions from (a) only people who you follow or (b) from anyone. This level of notification choice is not available for the web version, however. To be clear, I have ‘from anyone’ as the setting in my mobile – and I still see some mentions only on web, and not on mobile.