On X, the definition of ‘blocking’ is about to change

A lot has changed on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter since Elon Musk bought it two years ago. The company, renamed X, is on the verge of yet another major shift, with changes coming for what happens when one user blocks another.

The block function, a powerful tool which makes your account effectively invisible to anyone of your choosing, will soon let those people see what you are posting. The difference, according to a thread posted by X’s engineering account, is that blocked users will not be able to engage with the post in any way.

“High time this happened,” Musk wrote on the site last month when news broke of the impending change. “The block function will block that account from engaging with, but not block seeing, public post.”

As usual, critics have chimed in on X, with some saying that the change allows for voyeuristic behavior on the site. James O’Brien, an author and podcaster in London, summed up the feelings of many with a post that compared the change to Berthold Woltze’s famous painting “The Irritating Gentleman.”

O’Brien believes the block feature, as it currently exists, has two functions: It allows users to control access to their own posts and mute others whom they may find toxic.

“It allows you to deny excessively rude and obnoxious people the pleasure of enjoying your bon mots,” O’Brien said, via direct message.

“Obviously, it serves a much more important purpose for more vulnerable or sensitive people, and it’s hard not to see this move as Elon Musk demanding that they be exposed to abuse and mistreatment,” he said. “It’s a bully’s charter.”

One of the people most affected by the change would seemingly be Musk’s fellow tech billionaire Marc Andreessen, who has often boasted about the amount of users he has blocked and has made a point over the years of blocking journalists (including this reporter). Last year, when Musk announced that he would no longer block his critics, Andreessen said he would, in turn, block the people Musk had just unblocked.

Andreessen did not respond to a request for comment.

Some have theorized that Musk may have introduced the change because of the volume of users who have his personal account blocked, but in its thread about the change X’s engineering department said the move would allow for “greater transparency.” It also claimed that the current setup “can be used by users to share and hide harmful or private information about those they’ve blocked.”

As an alternative, X suggested users could make their posts protected, an option that limits access to the people who are already following an account and requires permission before new followers can be added.

The overall sentiment from users, however, is that the impending change to the block feature will allow for more abuse.

Tracy Chou, the founder of Block Party, a tool that “deep-cleans” social media accounts to make it difficult to be harassed, said on X that controlling abusers’ ability to find posts mattered.

She wrote in her post: “making it easy for a creeper to creep is not a good thing!!”