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By following our tips in this guide, you can control your Twitter experience by choosing what you can see and who you interact with.
Published: 23 September 2020
Last updated: 21 May 2021
This version was printed or saved on: 29 April 2024
Online version: https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/public-and-players/guide/controlling-gambling-related-content-you-see-on-twitter
Overview: Twitter’s aim is to ‘serve the public conversation’ – applying to every part of Twitter’s service, including advertising and promotional products.
With that in mind, on Twitter there are measures you can put in place to limit your exposure to gambling advertisements or gambling related content.
By following our tips in this guide, you can control your Twitter experience by choosing what you can see and who you interact with.
Unfollowing is the simplest action you can take to limit seeing someone’s Tweets on your timeline.
Be aware that unfollowing an account may not completely prevent you from seeing their Tweets. For example, if an account you follow interacts with that user’s Tweets.
The list of interests associated to your profile are usually derived from your Twitter activity.
Interests are comprised of a list of keywords, which enables Twitter to target content at you based on what you frequently tweet about or engage in.
It’s worthwhile monitoring what keywords are listed in your interests section. These may be prompting content to appear on your feed which you would rather not see.
You can go to Twitter's privacy settings (opens in new tab). Deselect any words which may prompt gambling related content to be targeted at you.
As well as unticking any gambling-related words, consider deselecting sports or gaming-related content. For example, 'football' or 'online gaming'.
You may have come across ‘promoted’ Tweets when scrolling through your timeline. These are paid for adverts used by brands to reach targeted audiences.
Your activity on Twitter, including what you Tweet, who you interact with or what you search for may be used to customise advertising for you.
There are several options available for you to use to help control what promoted Tweets you see on your timeline. To view these, hit the down arrow icon on a promoted Tweet.
The ‘I don’t like this ad’ option will send a notification to Twitter which will help control what promoted Tweets you see in the future.
Alternatively, you can choose to simply block the promoter of the Tweet, meaning you will no longer see promoted Tweets from that account.
Twitter’s mute feature is a great way to ensure you no longer see certain words, accounts and conversations when using the platform. It allows you to have greater control over what you can and can’t see on Twitter.
You can mute:
If you no longer want to see Tweets from someone in your timeline, but you don’t want to block them, you can mute their account. So, if you have a friend who likes to Tweet about the latest odds on a football match, muting their account will hide these posts from your timeline without blocking them.
Once you mute an account, you'll no longer receive push or SMS notifications from the account.
There are two ways in which you can mute an account you follow. The first is from your timeline; when you see the account appear in your timeline, simply hit the down arrow icon and select ‘mute account’.
The second way is from the account profile itself. Hit the three dots icon on the account profile and select ‘mute account’.
If there are certain keywords you tend to use which may trigger gambling-related content or recommendations to appear on your timeline, we advise you use the mute words feature. This allows you to take control over the language you see on Twitter.
It’s not just single words that you can mute. Hashtags, emojis and even full phrases can be muted, meaning they won’t appear in your timeline or in your notifications.
You can choose to mute words for:
For ads you no longer want to see, you can use block.
Muting is case-insensitive. For example, if you add 'FOOTBALL' to your mute list, any mention of 'football' will be muted.
Muting a word will mute both the word itself and its hashtag. For example, if you mute 'football', both 'football' and '#football' will be muted.
You can also mute phrases, usernames and emojis.
From your Twitter homepage, select the following options:
From here you will be able to add words you wish to mute.
You can also watch the following steps in Twitter's video guide to muting words.
You can read how to mute words and hashtags across different operating systems using Twitter's advanced muting options instructions (opens in new tab).
Muting a conversation stops you from receiving notifications related to a Tweet you’re a part of.
Muting a conversation will simply stop you from receiving notifications related to that particular Tweet. You'll still see the Tweet in your timeline.
You can block any account instantly. This will prevent specific accounts from viewing your profile, and you will no longer be able to see theirs.
So if there’s an account you follow or an ad you see which continually shares gambling related content - or if an account has a tendency to tag you - blocking these accounts and ads will ensure you don’t see their posts, and they can’t contact you.
There are two ways in which you can block an account.
You may want to consider blocking accounts if you're still seeing gambling related content from them on your timeline, despite putting in the measures above.
To find out more about keeping yourself safe on Twitter, you can visit the Twitter help centre (opens in new tab).