The blockchain feature of X as we know it is coming to an end, CEO Elon Musk said Monday in a social media post.
Musk confirmed the change in a response from Nima Owji, the web developer who first reported the news.
The Tweet may have been deleted
Since its launch, the blocking feature on Twitter, the former moniker of X, has allowed users to prevent people from viewing or engaging with their public posts. With the change, blocked accounts will be able to view blocked posts again, but cannot interact with content through likes, replies, reposts, or direct messages. Musk threatened last year to kill all features of the block, except that a blocked user can DM the blocker.
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Even if Musk’s reversal is not as extreme as his previous announcement, Monday’s news is alarming to many who have experienced harassment or stalking at X. While the updated block feature prevents bad actors from causing problems on X, anyone will soon be able to easily view information on the site and use it offline or on another site. Someone can now easily capture a post on X from an account that previously blocked them, for example, and repost it to Threads, Facebook, or Instagram; they can also uncap what X posts and send it to their own X account.
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Others at X responded positively to the news, calling the current block operation toothless. Owji, the web developer who reported the news, said that anyone can bypass the feature with different accounts, while others pointed out that blocked users can view public posts in their browser’s incognito mode.
Whatever Musk’s motivation for the change — some say it was Musk’s phony way to boost engagement with his ailing company, or tied to the upcoming presidential election, which the CEO clearly favors — may face some roadblocks. The biggest obstacle to X is that Google and Apple require blocking features for social media apps available in their app stores – and there is an ongoing effort to push Google and Apple to block X downloads if the blocking goes away.