New Facebook tools will help prevent unwanted friend requests and messages

Global Head of Safety at Facebook, Antigone Davis, revealed Facebook's new initiatives to prevent harassment on Facebook.

The social media giant has rolled out new tools and features to help prevent unwanted friend requests and messages from Facebook users.

These new tools will be capable of recognising and blocking any attempts of communication from a blocked user who might send a message or a friend request from a new or another account. 

In a statement released Tuesday, Davis talked about a new option that lets a user ignore a Messenger conversation by automatically moving it to their 'Filtered' messages.

Just a tap on a message will let a user ignore a conversation and move it to 'Filtered' messages.

A new feature will also let users read messages without letting the sender see if the message has been read already.

The feature is available for single conversations and will soon be applicable to group chats. 

These automated features will help in identifying fake accounts, preventing their owners from re-registering.

The set of new features will go a long way in providing stronger cyber-security, especially on Facebook, to women and journalists who often fall prey to online harassment and cyber-stalking. 

A range of signals -- like a user's IP address -- will be analysed to study the type of accounts and their owners who were previously blocked and therefore must be blocked from re-registering on Facebook, sending messages, friend requests or creating another account.