Protected Profile Changes

Good news for people everywhere: we've made some improvements for people who've protected their profiles on Twitter.

How it is now

* Protected updates are not searchable or viewable by the general public
* Protected profile owners must approve follow requests to allow new people to view their updates
* Accounts going from public to protected do not have to approve follow requests for existing followers, but do have to approve future follow requests.
* Protected profile owners do not automatically follow back when they approve a follow request
* Profiles going from public to private maintain all existing followers and can remove them from their followers page at any time

What's Different

* Protected profiles can now approve followers without following back, just like public accounts do currently
* People making the switch from public to private no longer have to approve each follower; instead, all existing followers are accepted as is.
* Protected profile owners can remove unwanted followers at any time by visiting their followers page, and clicking remove.
* Accepting a follow request does not automatically follow back; to follow a person back, visit their profile page.

Before today, public profiles going protected required follow request approval for each non-mutual follower. In other words, if both people weren't following each other when a public account went private, a follow request was generated and needed approval. Upon approval, the follow relationship was made mutual. To approve a follower, you had to follow back. Mutual following was mandatory for protected accounts.

In response to the many feature requests we've received over time, we've done away with this to make protected follow-ships more like public ones.

If you see any strange behavior, please let us know at support@twitter.com, or submit a ticket through our help page:

http://twitter.com/help/