Like many aspects of social media,Twitter Listshave unfortunately been used for evil by malicious actors. Fortunately, there is a way to remove yourself from Lists you don't want to be on.

The ability of Twitter Lists to organise and group accounts may have seemed like a harmless idea when it was first introduced in 2009. The feature can certainly be useful if you want to keep your Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner obsessions clearly separate, but aren't quite ready to drop either. However, Twitter trolls have since learned to use Twitter Lists to monitor users they disagree with, and facilitate targeted harassmentby working as a reference list for aggressive mobs. 

Being on one of these negative Twitter Lists can lead to users receiving waves of abuse from scores of random users on a relatively regular basis. As such, it's a good idea to take yourself off any more nefarious Lists you might find yourself on.

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Here's how to remove yourself from a Twitter List.

1. Open Twitter.

2. Go to the Twitter List you wish to remove yourself from. You can view all the Lists you're on by following Mashable's previous handy guide, then just click or tap on one to open it.

3. Click or tap on the "..." in the top right corner, which will open a menu.

4. From this menu, select "Block" to block the user who created the List (the menu option will also state their username). This will remove you from the Twitter List.

You can also remove yourself from a Twitter List by navigating to the List creator's profile and blocking them from there.

SEE ALSO: How to see what Twitter Lists you're on

Unblocking a Twitter List creator later won't reinstate you to their List, so blocking and immediately unblocking them is a viable option — a tactic known as "soft blocking." Blocked users also aren't notified of the block unless they visit your profile page, making this move useful if you want to minimise the likelihood they'll realise you're no longer on their List.

It's worth keeping in mind that blocking a user to erase yourself from their Twitter List will also stop them from following you. But if you want to be taken off a List someone has created, you probably wouldn't want them following you anyway.