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X (formerly known as Twitter) announced the roll out of a new block function on Sunday. The social media platform first announced the decision to change the way block works last month. With the new system, blocked users can see the profile, posts, as well as followers and following lists of the users who had blocked them. Several users of the platform expressed their concern over the move highlighting the threat to their safety as well as the higher potential of content theft.
X Begins Rolling Out Updated Block Function
Blocking users on social media platforms has always worked the same way. Once blocked, the one on the receiving end cannot see the profile of the one who has blocked them. This also means they cannot see or interact with their posts, check their bio or other information, and cannot send private messages to them.
However, last month X announced a change to its traditional block feature. The company said that with the updated policy, blocked users can see the profile and posts of the one they have been blocked by, although they would not be able to reply, retweet, or like their posts. They also cannot send them a direct message (DM).
The earlier version of the policy did not mention the follower or following lists but the new support page highlighted that blocked users can also see them, reducing the safety guardrails of users further. Explaining the move, the official Engineering page of X said in a post, “Today, block can be used by users to share and hide harmful or private information about those they’ve blocked. Users will be able to see if such behaviour occurs with this update, allowing for greater transparency.”
User reception towards this update has largely been negative. Responding to X’s post about the feature’s roll out, one user said, “Those of us who have stalkers on here and content thieves don’t appreciate this change at all and shouldn’t need to lock our accounts to protect ourselves from predatory types.”
Tracy Chou, developer of the Block Party app which allows social media users an easier way to block people, also objected to the update and highlighted that “making it easy for a creeper to creep is not a good thing!!”