Elon Musk Announces Twitter’s New Policy Removing Users’ Ability to Block Content

Twitter users will lose the ability to block unwanted followers, according to an announcement by Elon Musk, the owner of the platform now known as X. Musk stated that blocking will only be available for direct messages, effectively eliminating a feature that was considered crucial for user safety.

In response to a query asking about the difference between blocking and muting someone, Musk replied, “Block is going to be deleted as a ‘feature’, except for DMs.” The question was posted by the account of Tesla Owners Silicon Valley, a group supporting the electric car company which Musk leads as CEO.

Since acquiring Twitter last year for $44 billion, Musk has made significant changes to the company. This includes laying off staff, reinstating previously banned accounts, and recently rebranding the platform as X. However, Musk did not provide a specific reason or timeline for the removal of the block function, only stating that “it makes no sense” and assuring that the mute function will still be available.

The block function has been widely used by users to prevent hateful content and harassment from appearing in their feeds. The mute feature, on the other hand, simply hides undesired responses from the individual user but does not remove them from other people’s feeds.

Additionally, Twitter users have frequently utilized the block feature for boycotts and to avoid seeing ads from specific brands or promoters.

Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance and an investor in the new version of Twitter, advised that the company focus on addressing bots and spam before removing blocks.

“X should really solve the bots & spam problems before removing blocks,” wrote Zhao, whose company operates one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. “Just my 0.02.”

— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.

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