Elon Musk revealed last Friday that X, the social media platform that was formerly known as Twitter, will be removing the ability to block users. In a previous post, the billionaire expressed that the feature “makes no sense” and needs to be deprecated in favour of a stronger form of muting.
Blocking has always been considered as a preventive measure against harassment, especially on social media. This allows a user to permanently hide their profiles and postings from certain individuals, and vice versa. Muting, on the other hand, simply removes an account’s postings from your timeline or in the Explore tab without having to unfollow or block them. However, unlike Blocking, muting a user would not prevent them from sending you a Direct Message (DM).
It makes no sense
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 18, 2023
Speaking of which, Musk noted that users will still be given the ability to block others from DM-ing them. Keeping some form of blocking is necessary for any social media platform, as a complete removal of the ability would be in violation of both Apple App Store and Google Play Store policies. This in turn will result in the removal of X from the aforementioned platforms, severely affecting its user base. However, it is worth noting that no such policies exist for the web version of the service.
Pretty fun blocking people who complain that blocking is going away.
How does the medicine taste? 😂😂
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 20, 2023
Based on the billionaire’s comment on the matter, it does appear that X is also looking to introduce an upgraded form of Muting, though it is still not known how different it will be when compared to the existing version. On that note, neither Musk or the platform has revealed when the blocking ability will be completely removed.
(Source: Elon Musk, via X)
