@gabboman @mekkaokereke the existence of unlisted, followers only, and specific were originally built due to the benefits of privacy, but open the gates for abuse.... pulling in replies that are limited in scope won't do much in practice (unless the abuse is in public)

I think the better solution would be for abuse targets to be able to reject toots that include their user tag. As in, I don't follow you, or (you're not a friends of my friends).... you cannot @ me until I approve it. (maybe let people tick a box to approve first contact).

The rejection could also be hard.. eg. if it's a reply to a toot.. the owner of the original toot can delete the reply from the collection. (so it only exists on the abusers instance).

but all of this requires major AP changes.

edit: Twitter having everything as public makes it easier to audit. I think is the core point. unlisted/followers only/specific should be a privilege not a right etc.