One of the most important tools for trust and safety efforts is the “block” feature, allowing a user to entirely block someone else from following them. Yes, on Twitter/X you can get around this by going into incognito mode, but overall, the feature is a very useful tool for those being harassed to limit access to their abusers.
Elon Musk, however, seems to be going in the other direction.
Elon Musk says the ability to Block someone will be removed on X, except in the case of DMs. pic.twitter.com/aCzVuznPux
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) August 18, 2023
OPINION: Removing Blocking altogether is going too far.
While it can be used for purposes such as cutting off people who disagree with you politically, it has an important role to combat harassment, trolls and spam which are a significant problem for many users on the platform. https://t.co/GqJ4366VuG pic.twitter.com/15QRM2uYsf
— X News Daily (@xDaily) August 18, 2023
According to Musk, You will still be able to mute accounts and block users for DMs.
Elon signaled this could be happening back in June.
I’ve been on this site longer than Elon Musk has, and I’ve had to block thousands of angry bigots over the years. If Musk ends blocking, it will be open season for hate speech against Black people, women, people of color, LGBTQ people, and others. It will kill Twitter for good. pic.twitter.com/gvoGtwvXyo
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) June 8, 2023
