Twitter has significantly evolved since its launch in 2006, growing from a small microblogging website to the insidious beast of discordant rage it is today. In light of this, it should be no surprise that Twitter Lists have been used for nefarious purposes — so it’s worth checking if you’re on any.
Introduced in 2009, Twitter’s Lists feature allows users to group a collection of accounts so their tweets are shown together in a separate stream, without any posts from excluded profiles. It’s a potentially useful tool for those who don’t want politics and K-pop intermingling on their timeline, but still want to keep up with both Joe Biden and Jungkook.
Twitter Lists have been relatively underutilised in recent times, as many users prefer to eschew organisation in favour of leaning into the platform’s inherent chaos. However, one notable demographic has unfortunately found a use for Lists: Twitter trolls. Bad actors have been known to use Twitter’s Lists feature to compile collections of users that can then facilitate targeted harassment by working as a hit list of profiles for Twitter mobs to swarm.
As such, it’s a good idea to check whether you’ve been put on a List if you’ve suddenly experienced a surge of attacks on Twitter, or just to gauge the likelihood of one happening in the future.
Here’s how to see what Twitter lists you’re on.
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Open Twitter.
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Click or tap on “Lists” in the navigation bar on the left. If you’re on mobile, you can open the navigation bar by tapping on your profile picture in the top left corner.
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Click or tap on the “…” in the top right corner, which will open a menu.
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From this menu, select “Lists you’re on.”
Twitter will then show you all the Lists that others have added you to, letting you discover what kind of company other users think you fit in with. Hopefully it’s a list that will make you proud, or at least reveal how some of Twitter’s trolls are finding you.
Of course, it’s also entirely possible that you aren’t on any Twitter Lists, negative or otherwise, and your innocuous posts about your boyfriend and dogs have silently slipped beneath the notice of all but your friends. It can feel a bit disheartening to not be included, but in this case, it’s probably for the best.
