X, formerly Twitter, owner Elon Musk revealed in an August 18 post on the social media site that he intends to delete the block feature for users on the app.
Block is going to be deleted as a “feature”, except for DMs
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 18, 2023
The missive came in response to a post from the “Tesla Owners Silicon Valley” account which questioned why users didn’t simply employ the “mute” feature instead of the block.
Other users were quick to reply and, as of the time of this article’s publication, it appears as though the vast majority of comments on the original post appear to be from those explaining why the block functionality is important to them.
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“Blocking is bidirectional” posted ‘Cheryl B’ on X, adding “they can’t see my posts and I don’t have to see or hear from them either. Posts or DM’s.”
This isn’t the first time Musk’s floated the idea. On June 7 the billionaire responded to a post from self-proclaimed journalist Andy Ngo with a similar sentiment:
Blocking public posts makes no sense. It needs to be deprecated in favor of a stronger form of mute.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 7, 2023
A litany of users across the app blame Musk’s bent to delete the block feature on its negative effect on users who subscribe to the company’s “Blue” service, a subscription service implemented by Musk to replace the app’s former verification service.
In April 2022, for example, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney called people who supported the “Block the Blue” campaign, a user-led effort to block Blue subscribers on sight, “losers and goons.” Sweeney went on to state that X/Twitter should employ a meritocracy-based verification system.
Musk’s one word reply: “Exactly.”
Exactly
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 22, 2023
While most users expressing concern over the block feature’s impending deletion appear worried over the potential for unfettered harassment, the crypto community seems to be focused on the increased opportunity for scam accounts, spam, and bots to perpetuate.
Scam accounts now in the comments pic.twitter.com/P3uGjAUIlJ
— Satoshi Club (@esatoshiclub) August 18, 2023
Elon getting ready to drop the worse update of all time pic.twitter.com/41RA9Tcuxt
— Jawn (@Jawnxwick) August 18, 2023
We reached out to X for comment and received an immediate autoreply response: “We’ll get back to you soon.” We’ll update this article with any commentary we receive.
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