Elon Musk, the owner of X — formerly known as Twitter — announced that the block feature on the social media platform will be “deleted”. Musk tweeted this while responding to a question from the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley late Friday.
“Is there ever a reason to block vs mute someone? Give your reasons,” Tesla Owners Silicon Valley said on X. To this, Musk replied, “Block is going to be deleted as a ‘feature’, except for DMs (direct messages).” However, users could still mute others.
“It makes no sense,” Musk said in a series of tweets. Meanwhile, Tesla Owners Silicon Valley argued, “In my opinion, it’s worth having. Unfortunately trolls and spammers come out. Haters will always try to get some fame over trolling accounts and bashing their name through the mud and being able to control the experience matters. At least for reach user.”
Muting an account allows users the ability to not see posts by that account, but a muted account can still respond to the user’s posts and even repost them to their own followers for commentary and even send a direct message.
Meanwhile, the “blocking” features allow users to block accounts. The blocked account cannot respond to users’ posts. This has been an essential security feature on the social media platform. Users on X have complained that removing the blocking feature could lead to an uptick in online harassment on X.
Musk has introduced many changes to X since he took over the company formerly known as Twitter in a $44 billion deal last year. Since the takeover, Musk has been working to create what he calls ‘Twitter 2.0’.