Elon Musk Says X Will Remove Blocking Feature Except for DMs
- Laurent Giret
- Aug 18, 2023
-
19
After rebranding Twitter to X, blocking third-party clients, and making TweetDeck a paid feature, Elon Musk just found another way to alienate even more users: preventing them to block other people.
“Block is going to be deleted as a “feature,” except for DMs,” Musk tweeted earlier today. “It makes no sense,” he continued.
Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox
Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!
"*" indicates required fields
It makes no sense
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 18, 2023
As you can expect, there are already lots of negative reactions to this announcement. Even before Musk took over the company last fall, Twitter has been known as one of the most toxic social media platforms on the Internet. a place where harassment campaigns can thrive thanks to an endless stream of retweets.
If you’ve ever been on social media, you must be aware that the feeling of anonymity can make some people feel like they gained 10 pounds of muscle. And with the way Twitter works, muting people that bother you often isn’t enough. Blocking them, however, helps to ensure that bad actors won’t retweet one of your posts and potentially send all their followers against you.
It’s not clear why Elon Musk thinks restricting X’s blocking feature to DMs is a good idea. Anyway, considering Musk’s appetite for controversy, it’s now better to take anything he posts with a big grain of salt.