Twitter (X) to get rid of the Block feature
Blocking 'makes no sense' to Elon Musk.
Elon Musk has made a series of head-scratching decisions since acquiring Twitter late last year (including rebranding it to X), but his latest might be a topper. This morning, Elon Musk announced that Twitter will soon get rid of the Block feature, with the exception of DMs.
Elon Musk shared the news in a reply to a tweet earlier today. In response to a post from Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley that asked about the meritable difference between muting and blocking on the platform, Musk stated “Block is going to be deleted as a “feature”, except for DMs.” In a subsequent tweet, he clarified his stance on the matters, stating that “It makes no sense.”
The news quickly caused a stir among Twitter users, many of which pleaded to Musk to reconsider the decision. Many of them pointed out that Blocking can be useful for curtailing harassment and avoiding abusers. In response to a tweet criticizing the move to scrap Blocking, Musk suggested that people utilize the Mute feature instead. Muting will prevent you from seeing a person’s posts, but it doesn’t stop them from seeing, replying to, our quote tweeting yours.
Elon Musk neglected to share any additional details on his decision to get rid of Twitter’s Block feature — including when it will happen. With the amount of backlash he seems to be getting for the announcement, we’re curious to see if he reverses the decision, similar to what happened after he said that Light Mode would go away, and then users explained to him that some visually impaired people struggle to read white text on a dark background.
As we continue to follow the latest developments at Twitter (X), stick with Shacknews.
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replyDonovan Erskine posted a new article, Twitter (X) to get rid of the Block feature
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from a tech perspective there was some info about how people had hundreds of thousands of blocked accounts and the servers were overloading when creating a timeline for them something something just buy more servers hello
https://www.blockpartyapp.com/ in its heyday would mass block mass accounts-
I have like 20,000 accounts blocked lmao. Any time I got a promoted tweet I didn't want to see? blocked. Being able to block stuff made twitter usable and enjoyable for me after they moved to their dumb algorithm and tried to deprecate the your follows feed. If I hadn't already stopped using it, this would 100% get me to drop it now. Every time I look at X I usually end up blocking at least 5 people, usually more.
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Except I'm pretty sure current Twitter ADU is down from it's absolute peak, and this was never a technical issue before?
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This might have surged a lot of more recent blocks
https://www.forbes.com/sites/petersuciu/2023/04/24/blocktheblue-trending--will-it-undermine-twitter-blue/
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I just heard about this, lmao wtf. Elon is just speedrunning destroying all utility twitter ever had. He is determined to let people force you to see their bullshit if you use his dumb platform at all. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucccccccccccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu Elon.
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threads doing the rubbing hands meme everytime elon makes a dumb change
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yep, Musk and advertisers.
100% he is getting rid of Block because someone told him how many people have him blocked.
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clearly not because he is the most blocked account by a mile, couldn't be that!
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Apps named with a single letter or number are also banned in the App Store. Big popular apps can always break the rules, as long as it benefits apple in some way.
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That's how Reddit's "block" used to work. It was super fun when my ex was following my account and commenting bullshit on my posts and then getting into fights with other people to the point that I found out about it through someone else messaging me to say they were sorry about how awful this person seemed to be.
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Mute is only solving the problem for yourself and not your followers
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I just had a thought, how the hell does this work for protected accounts?
Going protected is also how people would really lock down their account, but if you can't block accounts while going protected that makes protected useless. If they followed you before you went protected there would be no way to get rid of them?
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people keep saying this but no one has linked the relevant TOS? I know they have requirements about platform side content moderation but I don't recall ever seeing this requirement
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Twitter's mute function surely satisfies this definition from the perspective of an app user. By no means does that description require you give users the ability to block content for yourself and for your followers.
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yes I want people to link sources for their claims and if those sources don't match their claims it's worth noting that
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You made a counter claim that the existing feature satisfies the requirement but have not backed that up yourself, it's simply your opinion.
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My evidence is the whole App Store. Where’s Reddit’s equivalent feature that lets me block a user’s posts from being seen by others who like me?
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You're the only one who has claimed that's the only significant difference. Others have pointed out ways in which Reddit does indeed do more than just mute the content for yourself.
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I dunno, I saw the pics on twitter
Here’s one actually getting told to do it in their review process
https://x.com/bmsimp/status/1692599329565868341?s=46&t=EGmzbL2_HPMS8zUzvkYYfA-
Here a screen from the tos
https://x.com/williamlegate/status/1692592664493904354?s=46&t=EGmzbL2_HPMS8zUzvkYYfA-
yeah I don't think folks are understanding what these things mean. Users need a way to block = mute. That's functionally equivalent from the user's perspective (but not from the network's and other user's perspective). The other link is about the platform providing some way to ban users which Twitter does with or without the block button. This one came up when Parler and others were first coming online with no content moderation at all and they got banned from app stores for not even being able to ban people who post child porn or whatever.
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because the TOS is written in common English not product specific feature verbiage about the nature of block vs mute vs silence vs ban or whatever. The TOS is saying you have to give users a way to stop people from harassing them, which in common language is to block them. Twitter's block feature doesn't even make sense in other apps with user generated content without followers. Think about how this would manifest in a Reddit app or Roblox.
Put another way, imagine you submit an app without any block feature and Apple rejects it citing this line. So you resubmit with a block feature. A user can now block any other user and not have to see their posts any more. Now Apple is going to still reject your app and cite that same line and say 'well actually it means a user has to also be able to block any user's content from being seen by their followers'?-
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hwut?
When you block someone's profile on Facebook, that profile will no longer be able to do things such as tag your profile or see things you post on your profile. If you have additional Facebook profiles, you'll need to manage blocking from each of your profiles separately.
https://www.facebook.com/help/168009843260943 -
for completionists:
Redditors you block won't be able to access your profile or see or reply to your post or comments in communities, unless you are a moderator in specific situations.
https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/4413520308372-How-does-blocking-work-#:~:text=You%20won't%20be%20able,their%20content%20will%20be%20collapsed-
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twitter mute as an alternative to block woudl suck, itd be like discords block, both shit cause you can still see your blocked users spam your UI
that said discord should not pass TOS until they fix that too-
It would absolutely suck and also satisfy App Store rules
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Uhhhhh. That's fucking stupid.
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Right after I block Elon. Go figure.
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Oh but this means Dan Harmon won't have me blocked anymore! Although I think he stopped using Twitter like 6 years ago.
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