Facebook is testing a new feature that could make a slightly more positive place to spend your time on the internet.
The tool would let users mute particular words, phrases and even emojis from appearing on their wall, according to Jane Manchun Wong, a frequent tipster and a computer science student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
It would prevent the terms from appearing in comments and other content, but the people who post them, as well as Facebook Friends, would still be able to see it.
'Facebook is working on letting users to ban words/phrases/emojis from showing up on their personal timelines,' Wong wrote in a tweet.
A screenshot of the feature shows a 'Comment Moderation' window.
In it, there's a section titled 'Ban these Words,' with the topics 'Can I get verified' and 'Facebook Gold' and buttons that say 'Ban.'
A notice in the 'Ban these words' section further explains how the feature works.
'Add words, phrases or emojis that you don't want to appear in comments on your timeline,' it reads.
'The people who post those comments and their friends will still be able to see them.'
Facebook uses a spam filter to prevent people from sending the same comments repeatedly and to presumably cut down on bots.
But the muting feature would let users block terms that might be used by harassers or include hate speech and other inflammatory content.
Instagram already has controls that let users mute certain terms from appearing on comments, while Twitter has similar tools that block certain phrases and words from appearing in their timeline.
Additionally, many users on popular blogging website Tumblr use extensions that mute words or posts that might otherwise be triggering.
While it's not a solution to targeted harassment and hate speech, such muting features put more control in the hands of users and their experience on the platform.
That said, as the Next Web pointed out, this doesn't give users the ability to mute posts from their News Feed.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
