The blocking feature of X as we know it will soon be gone, CEO Elon Musk said on the social media site on Monday.
Musk confirmed the change in a response to Nima Ouji, the web developer who first reported the news.
The tweet may have been deleted
Since its inception, Twitter’s (X’s) blocking feature has allowed users to stop others from viewing or responding to their public posts. With this change, blocked accounts will again be able to view the blocked person’s posts, but they will not be able to respond to the content with likes, replies, reposts, direct messages, etc. In fact, Musk threatened last year to remove all functionality of blocking, except for the ability for blocked users to send direct messages to the blocked person.
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While Musk’s changes are less drastic than his previous announcement, Monday’s news is still unsettling for the many people who have been harassed or stalked on X. The updated blocking feature prevents potential bad actors from causing trouble on X, but soon anyone will be able to easily view information on the site and make it available offline or via another site. For example, you can easily take a screen capture of a post on X from an account that previously blocked you and repost it to Threads, Facebook, or Instagram. You can also take a screen capture of that X post and post it to your own X account.
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Some X users responded positively to the news, saying the current blocking feature is ineffective. Owji, the web developer who broke the news, argued that anyone could circumvent the feature by using an alternate account, while others pointed out that blocked users can still view public posts in incognito mode on their browsers.
Whatever Musk’s motivation for the change — whether it’s his secret way of boosting engagement and publicity at the struggling company or it has to do with the upcoming presidential election, which the CEO clearly supports — it may hit some roadblocks. Google and apple The move is already requiring social media blocking features in apps available in app stores. Ongoing efforts Once the block is removed, lobby Google and Apple to block X from being downloaded.
