Elon Musk now wants to remove the ability to block Twitter accounts (X)

Soon you may not be able to stop the trolls or haters on X, the social network known until recently as Twitter. Elon Musk, who has owned the company since last year, said the lockdown feature “doesn’t make sense.”

“Block will be removed as a ‘feature’ except for MD (Direct Messages)”, Musk wrote in his account. The mogul responded to a comment from a follower who asked him if it makes sense to block a user when there is an option to silence them.

The ability to block Twitter is a security measure that the social network itself highlights as tool for users to “control their experience”. “Blocking helps people prevent certain accounts from communicating with them, viewing their tweets, and following them,” the company said in a statement. help center.

Mute doesn’t have the same effects, it just hides messages from the affected profile. A muted user is unaware of this restriction and can still see your messages. Replies and mentions made to you may also still appear in the notifications tab. In other words, allow spam.

Can Elon Musk Leave X (Twitter) Unable to Block?

Elon Musk has shown that he is not so worried about wreaking havoc on the social network with drastic changes. He made a splash last month when he set a viewing limit overnight for tweets on the platform. However, your new idea may bring you problems with third parties.

The blocking feature appears on the list of requirements for social media apps to be published on app stores such as Google Play. Some users immediately complained about Musk’s proposal because it would expose some people to harassment and discriminatory content. “dumb (dumb),” the tycoon replied.. He insisted that he would retain the ability to block direct messages on Twitter.

Various organizations have reported in recent months that The amount of hate speech on social media has increased since Musk came along. For example, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue has warned that misogynistic content is on the rise on the platform. A survey conducted in early March showed that the number of misogynistic accounts on Twitter rose by 69%. In addition, according to another report from the same organization, the number of anti-Semitic posts doubled during the Musk era.

Sabotaging attempts to appease advertisers

This new controversy, whether or not the removal of the blocking feature materializes, is hindering new Twitter CEO Linda Iaccarino’s attempts to win back advertisers’ trust. The company’s advertising sales fell 59% in April.compared to the same period last year. Advertisers are most concerned about the spread of malicious content on the social network.

As part of these efforts, the company released a report in July saying it was not as toxic as claimed. Twitter then said it had limited reach more than 700 thousand tweets in recent months, for violating his hate behavior policy. He assured that hate messages are a “small minority” and that 99.99% of impressions on the platform are “healthy content”.

In the same report, Twitter said it would expand restrictions on those who break the rules for offensive behavior and offensive language. “We will continue to address the most serious violations of our policies, such as illegal content, and we will remove attackers from our platform,” the company promised in a statement last month.