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X is x-ing out its block feature.
Elon Musk tweeted about the change on Friday in response to the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley account, which asked if there’s “ever a reason to block vs mute someone.” Musk said he’ll still allow blocking in DMs.
On Sunday, he tried to explain: “The obvious move is to strengthen the mute function by making anything posted by the muted account invisible to you,” claiming that “both mute and block are partly broken.”
“It should also be made easy to continue to follow an account, while blocking their ability to DM you,” he added.
Aqueel Miqdad, a software engineer at X, weighed in last week, tweeting that the platform “can make mutes stronger, like not allow people you mute to reply or quote you. We can also transfer [your] block list to mute list.”
He also said that “preventing an account from seeing your posts does not work in practice. Anyone with any intent can find out what you post by simply creating another account or logging out.”
It’s not clear if or when the change will happen. X did not respond to Marketing Brew’s request for comment by publication.
Several people have pointed out that removing X’s block feature will increase harassment and other harmful content on the platform. “Please rethink removing the block feature. As an anti-bullying activist (and target of harassment) I can assure you it’s a critical tool to keep people safe online,” Monica Lewinsky tweeted.
Meanwhile, some publications have noted that removing it would likely violate both the Apple App Store’s and Google Play Store’s policies. Both platforms require services that house user-generated content, like social media platforms, to offer block features.
As Variety’s New York digital editor said over the weekend, “the idea appears to be that X could make the case to Apple and Google that an enhanced mute function (“super-mute”?) is functionally equivalent to user-blocking, and thus would bring it into compliance with the app stores’ requirements on this front. Whether that will fly, of course, is unknown.”
Removing the block feature would be the latest in a string of controversial moves at X. In July, amid Twitter’s rebrand to X, it reinstated the account of Ye, formerly known as Kanye West. He’d been locked out of the platform last year after posting a tweet that included a picture of a swastika.
The Musk-induced upheaval of the platform, coupled with his hiring of NBCUniversal’s ad sales chief Linda Yaccarino as its CEO in this spring, has coincided with its struggles with advertisers. Musk said last month that X’s ad revenue had plummeted 50%. Musk is also contending with the July debut of Meta’s X competitor, Instagram Threads.
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