Elon Musk has once again made headlines with a controversial change to the platform previously known as Twitter, now renamed X. In a surprising move, Musk is deciding to eliminate the ‘block’ feature for users, except in direct messages. He justified this by stating simply that the feature “makes no sense.”
Historically, the ‘block’ option on the platform served as a tool for users to control their interactions, allowing them to limit specific accounts from reaching out, viewing their tweets, or even following them.
Musk, however, suggests an alternative: the mute button. But this doesn’t offer the same level of control; while muting only hides posts from a user’s timeline, blocking is used to stop another account from accessing one’s public posts on X altogether.
Moreover, it also appears that whisking away with the ‘block’ button may come with its own set of headaches and policy hurdles. Twitter users pointed to Apple’s and Google’s developer policies, which dictate that app developers— specifically those that focus on user-generated content (UGC) on social media apps such as Twitter— must provide in-app capabilities that allow for the blocking of such UGC and potentially abusive users.
uh-oh.
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