Twitter’s next feature could prevent career-killing old tweets resurfacing

You’ve seen enough stories about ten year-old tweets ruining lives to know that the odd bit of social media spring cleaning wouldn’t go amiss.

As society changes, along with personal politics and opinions, a lot of people have found themselves undone by historic posts that either represent less acceptable views, or no longer represent who they are as a person.

So, Twitter is finally working on a feature that will automatically archive tweets after a chosen period of time, according to a report from Bloomberg.

The feature, which Bloomberg sources say is among many in the “concept phase” would enable users to choose users to select a window of a month, three months or an entire year. The tweets wouldn’t be deleted, per se, but only the account holder would be able to see them.

There are plenty of third-party services that enable users to delete their old tweets, but options on Twitter are limited to going through them one at a time.

It’s one of a number of privacy-focused features reportedly being considered by Twitter to enable users to express themselves. Bloomberg says it’s “an effort to make people more comfortable interacting and sharing on the social network.”

Twitter describes it as “social privacy” and says users tend to withdraw from conversations when their comfort levels are sacrificed.

Other features being touted include the option to remove followers – currently only possible through blocking – as well as hiding tweets you’ve previously liked. Twitter users could soon be able to leave conversations that are getting a little close to the mark too.

The timeline for these features is yet to be firmed up, but users will surely welcome the arrival of all of these ways to protect their reputations while enjoying the social network.

Do you find yourself pulling away from the conversation on Twitter when things get heated? Let us know @trustedreviews on Twitter.