Several new features for Twitter conversations were announced at CES, Las Vegas yesterday, including the option to choose who can reply to your tweet (if anyone).

A new setting will allow users to select ‘conversation participants’ when composing a tweet. There will be four options: ‘Global’, ‘Group’, ‘Panel’ and ‘Statement’.

Global lets anyone respond, Group is for people you follow and mention, Panel is people you have mentioned in that tweet and Statement will allow you to post the tweet with no replies whatsoever.

Some users voiced concerns that this new feature would make it harder to debunk misinformation.

The @TwitterComms account responded with the following:

They also announced that they’ll be introducing a specific conversation view so you can put all of a conversation ‘on one screen’. The screen will have lines to help you to follow replies. They’re hoping this will make it easier for users to respond to specific individuals on a thread.

Twitter is well-known as a space for public conversation and discussion, but this new feature seems to be a move towards creating more private spaces on the platform. The ability to turn replies off (or limit them) could solve a lot of cases of cyberbullying and online harassment in the Twittersphere. Especially for celebs like Jameela Jamil, who keep getting trolled whilst campaigning for positive changes .

For brands, the ability to select a specific ‘panel’ could be really helpful when asking for feedback on a product launch or campaign. For example, when launching a Veganuary range, brands like Greggs could target vegan groups/influencers to get the most relevant responses.

Twitter’s director of product management, Suzanne Xie explained that these changes were currently in the research phase and should be coming to the platform later this year. Our advice to users and businesses would be to experiment with the different settings when they’re rolled out and see what works best for them – keep the conversation going!