If I read correctly favs are private and promotes are public? If that is true then I think we already have this feature.

Perhaps they can make @name automatically insert the icon with the name to get best of both worlds

I think InkBunny has it right with just @username which would be fitting here too as they use @names

Support freedom of expression and provide instructions to those who want to block tags from being displayed. Poster is right, if everything offensive is blocked then in the end the whole site will be blocked.