Musk’s Announcement To Do Away With X Block Feature Draws Huge Dissent From Users

In another baffling announcement, Musk has said that X, previously Twitter, will do away with the block" feature altogether.

Responding to a Tesla fan account that asked if there were any reasons to block someone instead of muting them, Musk tweeted that the block feature would be deleted - it makes no sense. However, users will still be able to block people from sending direct messages.

Block is going to be deleted as a feature", except for DMs

- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 18, 2023

Jack Dorsey, Twitter's ex-CEO, also voiced his opinion in favor of Musk. he tweeted, 100%. Mute only".

The current block feature allows users to restrict an account in its entirety. A blocked account cannot view your tweets, message you or comment on your posts.

However, the mute feature only disables notifications for the target person. A muted audience can still view your tweets, comment on them, and even message you.

Community Response

This recent change seems to be drawing a host of criticism from users worldwide. People are worried that the change might make X a toxic place, with no option to take action against cyberbullying, harassment, and hate speech.

The change gives a free pass to bots, spammers, scammers, and propagandists to operate with no checks in sight.

Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv), with approximately 1 million X followers, tweeted:

There are also tons of scammers trying to sell things in our replies. Links to crypto scams or whatever. If we want to block them from our replies, we should have that option. This is a huge mistake. Block is a critical feature.

Recently, the CCDH accused Musk of not doing enough to prevent hate speech on the platform, as he had promised during the takeover. And with this recent proposed change, things don't seem to be getting any better.

Several users demanded a vote for the policy change, citing Musk's earlier tweet in December 2022, where he promised there'd be a vote before any major policy change on the platform.

This policy change could also lead to the X app being unavailable on App Store and Play Store. Apparently, both these stores require apps to provide options to block abusive users from the platform. If this change does go through, X will be in direct violation of the requirement.

Compounding Problems For Musk

This is yet another self-created puddle by Musk. Since its acquisition, X's ad revenue has dwindled by as much as 50%, with players like Microsoft ditching the platform as an advertisement partner.

The threat of new entrants and competitors like Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads have also loomed large on the platform.

The frequent policy changes have not done much good for Musk either. Changes like the discontinuation of blue tick and login-only view access haven't gone down well with the users.

Now, if the block feature is done away with, many users might quit the platform altogether to avoid online harassment. This could be a boon for platforms like Threads and Mastodon, which have emerged as potent X alternatives.

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