X Users Cannot Block Elon Musk (or Any Other Person)
Elon Musk has announced further changes to X, stating that the option to block other users on the platform, formerly known as Twitter, will be eliminated, except for direct messages (DMs). Musk, who has expressed his intention to remove this feature before, argues that blocking users is illogical compared to muting them. However, users will still have the option to mute others.
Many people use the blocking feature to protect themselves from harassment. It’s long been a key security feature of the platform, and removing it opens the door to users potentially seeing more hateful content they don’t want to deal with in their feeds and notifications. Also, as CNBC points out, some users block advertisers and brands they don’t want to see, which (if enough people did so) could have a significant impact on X’s bottom line.
It makes no sense
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 18, 2023
In the spring, X killed the platform’s free API, breaking many third-party apps. Just a year earlier, Twitter (as it was then known) began recommending third-party apps for people to help reduce harassment on the platform. One of these tools, Block Party, has since been deprecated as a result of Twitter’s API changes.
On a related note, shortly after Musk announced a plan to remove the blocking feature, rival service Bluesky went down. It may be that more X users are looking for a lifeline when the platform becomes less palatable to them.
