Elon Musk has announced X’s block feature is set to change, removing a key element.
At present, when you block someone, they are barred from both interacting with you on X and from seeing your posts.
In the next X update, blocked users will still be able to view your content.
“High time this happened,” said X CEO Elon Musk in a post. “The block function will block that account from engaging with, but not block seeing, public post.”
Some have suggested this is a sensible move, as blocked users could simply log out of their account and use their browser’s incognito mode to side-step the block. Tech commentators have noted this is not actually the case.
“Go look at your account in incognito mode and you'll realize you don't see all the posts,” writes The Verge’s Tom Warren on X.
Other posters have suggested this is a retrograde step for the safety and overall experience of X users.
“I think this is a bad idea,” writes British rapper Zuby. “There are many reasons somebody may not want certain individuals from easily seeing all their public posts. There are some REALLY bad actors on social media, sadly.”
X: A brief history of controversy
This is the latest in a long list of contentious changes Musk has made to the platform since acquiring it in October 2022 – not least, changing its name from the original, Twitter.
One of his earlier moves was the reinstating of thousands of banned accounts, including those of far-right activists and white supremacists, such as The Daily Stormer founder Andrew Anglin.
The original “blue tick” Twitter system was retired in favour of X Premium. This turned an identity verification tool into something people could pay monthly for in order to get an icon on their profile and unlock features including longer, more rambling posts.
In April 2023, Musk made an estimated 80 per cent of the platform’s staff redundant, including a significant proportion of workers dedicated to user trust and safety.
Ahead of this, in December 2022, Musk dissolved the Twitter Trust and Safety Council, an advisory board made up of academics, human rights and civil organisations. It was designed to steer Twitter policies and practices.
According to a 2023 report by The Verge, Musk demanded X engineers make changes to the platform’s backend algorithms after his own Super Bowl tweet received less engagement than that of President Joe Biden.
A study by Edison Research published earlier this year suggests X has seen as much as a 30 per cent drop in usage between 2023 and 2024.
