Users responded with a massive backlash to the announcement Wednesday that X (formerly Twitter) will “soon” be going through with the change to the block feature that will allowed blocked users to view the activity of people who blocked them.
“Soon we’ll be launching a change to how the block function works. If your posts are set to public, accounts you have blocked will be able to view them, but they will not be able to engage (like, reply, repost, etc.),” X Engineering said.
And in a follow up post, X Engineering offered an almost prosaically Orwellian explanation, telling users, “Today, block can be used by users to share and hide harmful or private information about those they’ve blocked. Users will be able to see if such behavior occurs with this update, allowing for greater transparency.”
Numerous users pointed out the obvious problems with that — particularly how the explanation ignores that blocking is also used to prevent or stop harassment.
Some users pointed out that this change effectively makes the block feature identical to the mute feature.
Still others noted that under the direction of owner Elon Musk, X (formerly Twitter) has made numerous changes that actually reduce transparency.
And naturally several other users theorized that the change has something to do with Musk personally.
When the update was first announced in September, Musk celebrated it, posting, ““High time this happened.” He’d previously said outright that argued that blocking people “makes no sense” and that the mute function should be users sole recourse. And in August 2023, he threatened that “block is going to be deleted.”
Still no word on when the change will be implemented — as we said, X Engineers only said “Soon.” For those users who decide to continue using the platform but want to keep their harassers from seeing their posts, once the change takes place the only recourse will be to make their entire account private, or move to a social media site that allows blocking, like Bluesky.
Leave a Reply