Spoiler Etiquette on X: Warnings, Muted Words and Fair Play

Spoilers are a shared problem on X: the platform moves fast, posts show up in feeds of people who never asked for them, and there's no built-in spoiler tag for text. The fair approach is simple. Keep your main post spoiler-free, put any reveal behind a clear warning and some blank space, and give new releases time before you discuss endings openly. If you're the one trying to avoid spoilers, muted words do most of the work.

What counts as a spoiler

A spoiler is anything that takes away a surprise the filmmakers built on purpose. Endings and twists are the obvious ones, but they aren't the only ones. The death of a major character, a hidden identity, a cameo the marketing kept quiet, the outcome of a contest or trial, even the fact that there's a twist at all: each of these can change how someone watches.

The premise usually isn't a spoiler. If it's in the trailer or on the poster, it's fair to mention. "A farmer plots to drown his wife" is the setup of Sunrise, not a reveal. How it ends is a different matter.

How long to wait

There's no official rule, and people disagree. These are reasonable rough guides:

• For a new theatrical release, keep your main posts spoiler-free for at least the first couple of weeks, and longer for big franchise films that many people see late.
• For a streaming premiere, wait at least a week, since many people watch on weekends.
• For films that have been out for years, most things are fair game, though a warning still costs nothing if the twist is the whole point.

A century-old silent film may seem exempt. It isn't, quite. Plenty of people will be seeing The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari for the first time, and its frame story works best if you don't know about it. In our reviews we avoid naming the big reveals for exactly that reason.

How to write a spoiler warning

A good warning does two things: it tells people what film the spoilers are about, and it keeps the spoiler itself out of the part of the post they've already read.

Put the warning first, on its own line, and name the film:

[SPOILERS] The Gold Rush (1925)

Then add blank lines before the reveal. On most screens the timeline shows the first few lines of a post, so a gap gives readers a chance to scroll past before their eyes hit the spoiler. Our micro-review builder adds a "[SPOILERS]" line and two blank lines when you tick the spoiler box.

A few habits make warnings work better:

• Never put the spoiler in the first line, and that includes the image. If the attached picture shows the ending, the text warning doesn't help.
• Don't drop a reveal into a reply under a spoiler-free thread, where nobody expects it.
• Keep reveals out of hashtags, which show up in search with no warning at all.
• Don't be coy in a way that gives it away. "I can't believe who the killer is!!!" tells people there's a surprise and invites guessing.

For a longer discussion, a thread works well. Make the first post spoiler-free with a warning that the replies contain spoilers, then discuss freely beneath it. People who open a thread full of spoilers after being warned have chosen to.

Images and video clips

Images are harder to scroll past than text. X does let you flag media you post as sensitive, which puts a warning screen in front of it, but that option exists for content like violence or nudity, not for plot reveals. Using it for spoilers can also get your media handled differently by X's systems.

The safer route is to keep spoiler images out of posts entirely, or to use an image that doesn't give anything away: a title card, a review card like the one our builder makes, or a frame from early in the film. If you do describe an image in its alt text, remember the description is part of the post too. Don't put the reveal there.

Protecting yourself with muted words

If you're trying to stay unspoiled, X's muted words feature is the most effective tool you have. In the X app, the steps are roughly:

1. Open the Notifications tab and tap the settings (gear) icon.
2. Go to Muted, then Muted words.
3. Tap Add and enter one word, phrase or hashtag. Entries are added one at a time.
4. Choose whether to mute it in your Home timeline, your Notifications, or both.
5. For notifications, choose whether it applies to posts from anyone or only from people you don't follow.
6. Set how long the mute lasts: forever, 24 hours, 7 days or 30 days.
7. Save.

On the web, the same settings live under Settings and privacy, in the section for muting and blocking. Menu names on X change from time to time, so if you can't find them, search the settings for "muted."

What to mute

Mute more than just the title. People talk about films using the director's name, the lead actor's name, character names, a franchise name, nicknames and hashtags. For a big release, five or six entries is normal. A typical set might be the title, the title without spaces, the main hashtag, the franchise name and the lead character's name.

Muting a word typically catches its hashtag form too, but adding the hashtag as its own entry is a cheap way to be sure.

Set the mute to 30 days for a theatrical release you plan to see soon, and remember to remove it afterward, or the feature will keep hiding conversations you now want to join.

What muting won't catch

Muted words filter text in posts. They won't reliably catch a spoiler that's only in an image or video, a misspelled title, or a post that describes a twist without naming the film. Accounts that live-post during premieres are the biggest risk, and muting the account for a week is sometimes easier than guessing their wording.

When someone spoils you

If it was an accident, a short reply usually gets the post deleted. If someone is spoiling films on purpose, muting or blocking them is quicker than arguing, and targeted harassment can be reported to X.

TwitterCritic is not affiliated with X Corp. Feature names and menus on X change over time; check X's help center if a step above doesn't match what you see.