After speaking about it for greater than a 12 months, X is now transferring to dilute the account blocking performance within the app, by eradicating the block button from a number of locations.
BREAKING: X is about to take away the present block button, that means that if an account is public, their posts will likely be seen to the blocked customers as properly!
— Nima Owji (@nima_owji) September 23, 2024
As outlined by app researcher Nima Owji, X is eradicating the present block choice from posts. You’ll nonetheless seemingly have the ability to block somebody from their profile, however even when an account is blocked, the blocked person will nonetheless have the ability to see your public posts.
Which signifies that the one solution to keep away from having somebody see your updates is to submit privately, or to your followers solely, which might preserve it from their view.
The logic right here is that anybody, blocked or not, can nonetheless view public posts anyway, in the event that they log in through one other account, or through an incognito window, so there’s no actual worth to blocking on this sense.
However there’s. Having the ability to block someone signifies that they don’t mechanically see your updates of their feed, which is usually a worthwhile deterrent for problematic customers. Customers who’ve been subjected to harassment and abuse discover nice worth on this choice, as a result of although blocked customers can nonetheless swap view somebody’s public updates, the truth that they’re not available is a limiting think about many instances.
Which is why each the App Retailer and Google Play Retailer require a blocking choice, and it does appear to be X’s makes an attempt to water down and reduce blocking may very well be in violation of those parameters.
However X proprietor Elon Musk is satisfied that blocking is a detrimental aspect, principally due to block lists, which he believes limit the attain of his posts, and different profiles, within the app.
The large block lists are problematic. They mess up the advice system & create a DDoS vector.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 12, 2023
I’m undecided how block lists would “create a DDoS vector”, however primarily, Elon’s been making an attempt to do away with blocking as a operate as a result of it limits the attain of individuals’s posts whom he thinks ought to get extra visibility.
That appears to be the primary motivation behind this transfer, and the way it’ll truly work in observe isn’t completely clear. However Elon has confirmed that blocking will nonetheless exist, it’ll simply be tougher to search out.
It appears problematic, and doubtlessly a trigger of larger points than it’s intending to repair. However once more, Elon thinks that his attain is being restricted by block lists, and that is the one manner that he can negate them. So he’s pushing ahead, seemingly in a cautious method, with a view to meet app retailer necessities.
