Earlier today we talked about how Elon Musk announced that he was going to take away the block feature. We believe this is an absolutely terrible idea. However, as one person pointed out, that is might violate the terms of service of Apple’s App store and Google’s Play store:
I'ma just leave this here. https://t.co/f3lJehDtwZ pic.twitter.com/d4foIbCqPo
— Nied.bsky.social (@B_Nied) August 18, 2023
Woah look at that! https://t.co/l4dQUOsYbj pic.twitter.com/6cwYsemray
— Nied.bsky.social (@B_Nied) August 18, 2023
Now, to be fair, it appears that the Google terms of service more clearly requires a block button, but in the end Twitter might find itself being threatened with being removed from either store and that means removing Twitter from millions of phones. As you might recall, when there were rumors that Apple would remove the app from its store when Musk took over, Musk threatened to create his own phone company. Who knows whether or not he might revive the idea.
We do think blocking is a very useful feature to have. When users do get obnoxious, or it otherwise makes sense to cut them out of your mentions, we prefer to mute people. Then they can receive your wisdom without bothering you. We prefer the freest flow of information possible.
But some people get so obsessive that muting isn’t enough. They start to reply to every person who replies to you, which often prompts that person to reply to them, putting them in your notifications against your will.
It also makes it easier for obnoxious people who have high follower counts to direct swarms of people to you:
If people can see your feed, then whether you can see what they say or not, they can direct countless other people to your feed to harass you, and muting them all would rapidly become a full-time job.
— SteelPhoenix78 (@SteelPhoenix78) August 18, 2023
Doing away with the #blocking feature opens up all people to harassment.
We know of several high follower accounts who will denounce you (often behind a block) and the result is often just dozens of people spamming your account. And, of course, those people would be much more tolerable if they engaged in discussion, but instead around 90% of them just say ‘your dumb’ or something like that (and with that spelling, too). We are not sure all of these accounts know they are having this effect, but the effect degrades the user experience.
And, well, bluntly, this author is a man. We suspect it gets much creepier for women. For instance, imagine some creep sending pictures to every person a woman engages with, with a photoshop of her face on a naked woman's body.
Naturally, more and more people are weighing in.
Muting doesn’t stop people from commenting so others on your thread can see it. I don’t want pornographers spamming my comments, for example, even if I cant see them. https://t.co/LJzfmLI3UB
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) August 18, 2023
How about stalkers replying to every freaking post you make accusing you of vile and insane things? I don't need a close personal relationship with my stalkers.
— FilmLadd (@FilmLadd) August 18, 2023
But then that’s not freedom of speech
— Oscar Herrera (@OscarEnjoylife) August 18, 2023
Something Elon is aiming for
You do not have the right to listen to every speaker if they don’t want you to. If you are discussing politics with your wife, does a stranger have a right to come into your home and listen? If you are discussing business on the phone does a third party have a right to join the call, even if everyone else in the call doesn’t want him or her to? As we have pointed out in the past, even a politician can exclude a person from his rally, if he doesn’t want that person there.
Hey @elonmusk - I have had to block multiple legitimate stalkers over the years, not to mention all the people who falsely report people like me .
— Helena Handbasket (@BumpstockBarbie) August 18, 2023
We should be allowed to block people like that.
Indeed, the only solution for someone in her position is to set her tweets to protected—assuming Musk doesn’t prevent us from doing that, too. And that kills site engagement and growth of each user.
"Elon, did you hear Seth is a pedophile? Look at all the funny death threats he's getting. Also, please keep the block feature so I can stay safe from harassment." pic.twitter.com/TJ6HqpQejg
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) August 18, 2023
That user is being hypocritical but is right about the value of blocking.
Even XDaily, which Musk follows, agrees this is a bad move:
OPINION: Removing Blocking altogether is going too far.
— X News Daily (@xDaily) August 18, 2023
While it can be used for purposes such as cutting off people who disagree with you politically, it has an important role to combat harassment, trolls and spam which are a significant problem for many users on the platform. https://t.co/GqJ4366VuG pic.twitter.com/15QRM2uYsf
There could be compromises such as e.g. Blocked users can still see your posts, just not interact, but removing Blocking altogether will IMO make the platform worse
— X News Daily (@xDaily) August 18, 2023
Musk responded:
Mute
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 18, 2023
Muting isn't a full replacement for blocking.
— X News Daily (@xDaily) August 18, 2023
If anything, blocking is more of a service to your followers to stop them seeing harassment, spam etc.
It also prevents someone from quote-posting you to direct harassment your way.
Look at the replies. The feedback isn't good.
Another benefit of blocking is it's a clear signal to let someone know their behaviour has crossed a line.
— X News Daily (@xDaily) August 18, 2023
When we talk to people about why they don't use X, harassment/trolls are one of the biggest reasons. Making the tools we have less effective is not a good direction IMO.
As one silver lining, they might make muting more muscular? This guy’s profile says he is ‘Building the product development infrastructure @ http://X.com’ suggesting he has something to do with how Twitter/X works.
i am seeing a lot of users concerned about removing blocks. We can make mutes stronger, like not allow people you mute to reply or quote you. We can also transfer you block list to mute list.
— Aqueel (@AqueelMiq) August 18, 2023
Preventing an account from seeing your posts does not work in practice. Anyone with any…
The rest of the Tweet says:
Preventing an account from seeing your posts does not work in practice. Anyone with any intent can find out what you post by simply creating another account or logging out
There are currently workarounds for blocking people that could allow that person to continue to bother you. But most of these people are too lazy to constantly use those work arounds. So far, whenever this author has had to block a person, that removed that person and their followers from his mentions.
Still, if muting eliminated the possibility of quote tweets and spamming replies, that would help. But it would not eliminate the problems. Yes, some people overuse blocking. But we think on balance it is useful enough that it shouldn’t go away completely.
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