Some tweets are blocked by Twitter with a “potentially sensitive content” warning, including when you retweet them. This warning can be turned off, even on an iPhone or iPad. Without making your account private, you can also disable sensitive content warnings on your tweets.
This warning label is for “potentially sensitive content… such as violence or nudity,” according to Twitter.
To put it bluntly, Twitter is a more open social network than Facebook. While Twitter’s sensitive media policy prohibits “excessively gory” media, “media depicting sexual violence,” and illegal content, nearly anything else is permitted.
Twitter restricts this media by default, with warnings such as “This media may contain sensitive material,” “This profile may contain potentially sensitive content,” or “The following media contains potentially sensitive content.” If you don’t already have a Twitter account, you’ll need to create one and log in before you can change this setting.
Twitter’s privacy settings allow you to disable the Sensitive Content warning. These options are available in the same location in the Android app, but not in the Twitter app for iPhone and iPad. However, if you change the setting on the web, the Twitter iPhone and iPad apps will display sensitive content without warning.
- To turn off the warning, go to the Twitter website and click the “More” button, which is represented by three dots in a circle on the left side of the screen.
- Then, from the pop-up menu, choose “Settings and Privacy.”
- Select “Privacy and Safety” from the list of options on the left, followed by “Content You See.”
- To disable the tweet warning, check the box next to “Display Media That May Contain Sensitive Content” near the top of the screen.
Tweets containing sensitive content are typically hidden from searches, but you can enable them if you prefer. You can do the same thing in the Twitter app for Android as described above, but the setting isn’t available for iPhone or iPad.
To do so, go to Twitter.com and select More > Settings and Privacy > Privacy and Safety > Content You See > Search Settings. Uncheck the box next to “Hide Sensitive Content.”
To prevent Twitter from labelling your uploaded media as sensitive, go to More > Settings and Privacy > Privacy and Safety > Your Tweets. Uncheck “Mark Media You Tweet as Containing Material That May Be Sensitive.”
This option is available on the web and in the Android app, but not in the iPhone and iPad apps.
Note: Twitter reserves the right to permanently enable this option for your account if you abuse it by uploading sensitive media without properly labelling it. That’s why you can’t disable it.
