Elon Musk to remove Twitter blocking feature on X.

Blocking a user on that platform prevents the user from interacting with an account – such as viewing the user’s tweet, relaying their tweets, or addressing them directly. A blocked user knows that they have been blocked. Meanwhile, muting the account prevents the user from seeing the account’s posts. Muted accounts do not know that someone has muted them.

It’s not clear when the change will take effect — or whether the feature can be removed without violating the terms of service for both Apple and Google’s app stores, both of which require apps to provide the ability to block users.

For this reason, Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said Musk will not pursue the matter. “If your app hosts user-generated content … you need to give them the ability to block abusive users,” she told The Washington Post.

X did not respond to a request for comment. Google and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

After the announcement, some users of Musk’s platform described how the block was restricted Her post leads to more harassment on a platform that is already struggling to contain abuse.

Tanya Bultmann, a historian at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, He tweeted on Friday. “It’s a very ignorant and privileged perspective to think that bans don’t make sense.”

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Poland tweeted that it was using the ban feature to limit anti-Semitic responses to tweets commemorating concentration camp victims.

“A platform that ignores the need to defend the memory of victims shows disregard for creating an online environment of respect and empathy.” Written on Friday.

Such a change would mark the latest example of how Musk has transformed the platform he bought for $44 billion in October, including with scrapping measures aimed at user safety. Soon after taking the platform, Musk reinstated several previously banned accounts, including that of former President Donald Trump. He’s also cut trust and safety staff, and dissolved the board that has strived for years to make the social network safer and more civil.

Elon Musk’s Twitter is pushing hate speech and extremist content onto the For You pages

These changes have been accompanied by a sharp rise in online harassment, including against racial and religious minorities outside the United States. In March, a Washington Post analysis found that the platform promoted hate speech via its recommendations page.

Last month, Musk renamed the company X, with the goal of turning it into an “everything app.”

In response to the backlash, Akil Mokdad, Product Developer at X, he said in a tweet that where there is no blocking, the mute feature can be made “stronger” by adding blocking feature functionality, such as preventing people from replying to or quoting tweets – and by moving blocklists to mute lists.

Musk promoted Al Moqdad’s tweet and replied, “Chaos over nothing,” followed by a laughing emoji.

But Tracy Chu, an engineer who designs software to combat online harassment, said such tweaks would destroy the mute functionality.

“The great power of ‘mute’ today is that it’s a way to protect yourself from someone else without them knowing you did,” she told The Post. “If it is clear to the person that you muted them, they will find new ways to escalate, just as they do with bans today.”