Threads users now have more control over who can cite their posts.
It builds on a feature that allows Threads users to limit who can reply to their posts (competing services like X and Bluesky offer similar reply controls). Threads outlined plans for quote control last month, and last night Adam Mosseri, who leads both Threads and Instagram at parent company Meta, announced that the feature would be available to all users.
“We hope this keeps Threads in a more positive place and gives people more control over their experience,” Mosseri wrote.
As of Saturday morning, the ability to limit quotation marks is not visible when you log into Threads on a desktop web browser, but it is available in the Threads mobile app. Quote and reply controls appear to be grouped together in his single drop-down menu, where users can open conversations to “anyone” or limit them to “profiles you follow” or “mentions only.” You can also. These controls make it difficult for users to “dunk” someone else's post to make it look stupid.
Image credit: Thread
“But dunking is good!” you say. “We need to be able to tell our followers when someone at X/Threads/Bluesky/Mastodon posts something stupid, offensive, or ridiculous.”
Of course, when he's not getting hit, he enjoys dunking better than anyone else. Fortunately, the ability to screenshot and share someone's post while explaining why you find it stupid, offensive, or otherwise objectionable still exists. This reduces the chance of your original post going viral due to a series of dunks.
And that means, in theory, the original poster can happily scroll anywhere on the internet where someone might be saying something mean about them.