Social media giant Twitter, now known as X, has announced plans to remove the blocking feature for its users.
Twitter owner, Elon Musk announced the looming changes on Friday August 18, claiming that the feature is not realistic.
Musk was replying to a tweet by a user who asked him to clarify why someone would want to block or mute others.
However, Musk said users will still be able to block people from directly messaging them – what is popularly known as DM.
“Block is going to be deleted as a “feature”, It makes no sense.
You will still be able to mute accounts and block users for DMs,” posted Musk.
Currently, when users “block” an account, it stops that account’s posts from appearing in the blocker’s timeline, and vice versa.
An account that is blocked can no longer send messages to the blocker, nor can it view their posts.
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But there are concerns that muting an account would not be sufficient protection from cases of harassment, abuse or stalking.
The mute function currently only stops notifications about an account’s posts. An account that is muted can still view the muter’s posts and reply to them.
Should Twitter block button go?
Reacting to Musk’s announcement, a section of the users claimed that it is a terrible idea and that the billionaire should reconsider it.
“I wonder how many of X’s top powerhouse creators have to chime in on this before it becomes clear this is a terrible idea,” replied Torrey Dawley.
Others said it is a crazy idea since the blocking feature allows users to choose those who can read and reply to their tweets.
Additionally, users argued that the block button helps them deal with harassment and bullying.
“90% of people that I block, are just insulting or write creepy stuff. How to deal with that?” asked Lord Bebo.
“What about online stalkers, so they can just freely comment on all your stuff without any ability to control that? Also, a personal security concern,” posed AlphaFox.
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Further, a user claimed that Musk is removing the block button to hide certain data from big tech companies.
“I think Musk doing this so the app store dump X so then those big tech companies won’t be able to access certain data or stuff (I don’t know I’m not into tech) but I know app stores want access to certain things so I’m assuming it’s so X won’t have any big tech interference?” wrote Mike.
Poll on Changes
On December 18,2022, Elon Musk announced that users will participate in an online poll for any proposed changes on the platform.
“Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. My apologies won’t happen again,” tweeted Musk.
On this, a user named Gucci the platform has moved from a democracy to a dictatorship really quickly.
Others requested Musk to conduct an online poll on his plan.
“There will be no poll because he knows that he would get creamed by embarrassingly large numbers,” posted a user.
Previous Changes
Musk rebranded Twitter to “X” and removed legacy verified checkmarks, which made verification feature for Twitter Blue available upon payment.
Musk also introduced the ability to edit tweets. Tweet Deck is also no longer free.
