Elon Musk, the visionary entrepreneur behind the social media platform formerly known as Twitter and now referred to as X, has announced a significant change to the platform’s blocking feature.
According to a post made by Musk on Friday, August 18, users will no longer have the option to block other accounts on X.
This change, however, will not apply to direct messages (DMs), allowing users to maintain control over who can contact them privately.
The block button, a widely-used feature across various social media platforms, allowed users to prevent specific accounts from viewing their content or responding to their posts.
This provided a sense of security and control over interactions on the platform. However, Musk’s recent decision to remove this feature has generated both curiosity and criticism from users.
In his words;
“Block is going to be deleted as a ‘feature’, except for DMs”
“It makes no sense.”
As a substitute for blocking, Musk introduced the concept of using the mute button. When an account is muted, its posts will no longer appear in the user’s timeline.
Despite this, users will still be able to view the muted account’s content by clicking on links, and the muted user will still have the ability to see the content of the user who muted them.
This new approach allows for a degree of control over one’s feed without entirely eliminating the possibility of interaction.
Following the announcement, the X platform witnessed a flurry of reactions from its user base.
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