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“The owner of the rebranded Twitter service announces removal of blocks, except in DMs.”
Elon Musk, owner and chief technical officer of X, has announced that the platform formerly known as Twitter will no longer offer the option to block other users, except for direct messages (DMs). Musk, who has previously expressed his desire to remove the feature, argues that it is more logical to mute users rather than block them. The mute option will still be available.
The removal of the block feature has sparked concerns among many users who rely on it to protect themselves from harassment. Blocking has long been considered a crucial safety measure on the platform, and its elimination could potentially expose users to more hateful content in their feeds and notifications. Additionally, CNBC highlights that some users block advertisers and brands they do not wish to see, which could have a significant impact on X’s revenue if enough people follow suit.
This move follows X’s decision to discontinue the platform’s free API in the spring, leading to the disruption of numerous third-party apps. Just a year earlier, Twitter had started recommending third-party apps as a means to combat harassment on the platform. However, one of those tools, Block Party, has since abandoned Twitter due to the API changes.
In a related development, rival service Bluesky experienced an outage shortly after Musk’s announcement about removing the block function. This suggests that more X users may be seeking alternatives as the platform becomes less appealing to them.