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\u201cIt makes no sense,\u201d Elon Musk<\/strong> announced Friday<\/a> via his social network. Those who viewed the billionaire’s post to X might have hoped he was referring to his proposed brawl<\/a> with Meta chair Mark Zuckerberg<\/strong> or his decision to change Twitter’s name to X<\/a> or his money-losing purchase<\/a> of the company in the first place. (Or a multitude of other things he’s said and done<\/a>.) Those hopes are all for naught, however, as the allegedly senseless thing Musk is now seeking to destroy is one of the only things left that makes X endurable for those with large followings: the ability to block other users.<\/p>\n This content can also be viewed on the site it originates<\/a> from.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n According to X’s own \u201cHelp Center<\/a>,” the block function is intended to \u201ccontrol how you interact with other accounts on Twitter\u201d and \u201chelps people in restricting specific accounts from contacting them, seeing their Tweets, and following them.\u201d As Kotaku reporter Gita Jackson<\/strong> wrote in 2018<\/a>, the platform’s \u201csafety measures are notoriously lackluster\u201d so blocking other users is often the only way to avoid targeted harassment from specific people.\u00a0<\/p>\n It’s also a good way to stop those harassers in their tracks, Jackson notes. \u201cEven some of the more persistent angry people who show up in my mentions, the kind who take a screenshot of the block they\u2019ve received to tweet something like \u2018I guess I touched a nerve,\u2019 lose interest once there\u2019s a stumbling block for further engaging with me,\u201d they write.<\/p>\n But according to Musk, his company will soon remove that stumbling block. Instead, he seemingly says, users can \u201cmute\u201d an account<\/a>, a function that means a user can essentially remove another user’s remarks from view, but does not prevent another user from seeing their activity on X.\u00a0<\/p>\n In essence, it’s like covering your eyes and ears when someone is yelling awful things at you: they can keep on yelling in your face, you just don’t know they’re doing it. But if Musk moves forward with this plan (anyone’s guess, given the number of announcements he makes that never pan out<\/a>), the only way a user will be able to remove themselves from a harasser’s view will be to remove themselves from the entire public conversation, by making their entire account private<\/a>.<\/p>\n This content can also be viewed on the site it originates<\/a> from.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The social media company’s former CEO, Jack Dorsey<\/strong>, appeared to endorse the change, posting \u201c\ud83d\udcaf. mute only\u201d in response. But according to a \u201cCommunity Notes\u201d entry<\/a> added to Musk’s block-blocking announcement, Dorsey might also be applauding the final nail in his old company’s coffin.<\/p>\n That’s because, per the note, \u201cIf the ability to block users was to be removed, X would be in violation of the policies of the App Store as well as the Google Play Store. Potentially, this could lead to X being removed from these platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nTwitter content<\/h4>\n
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