X Looks To Remove Account Blocking Options in the App

After talking about it for more than a year, X is now moving to dilute the account blocking functionality in the app, by removing the block button from several places.

As outlined by app researcher Nima Owji, X is removing the current block option from posts. You’ll still seemingly be able to block someone from their profile, but even if an account is blocked, the blocked user will still be able to see your public posts.

Which means that the only way to avoid having someone see your updates is to post privately, or to your followers only, which would keep it from their view.

The logic here is that anyone, blocked or not, can still view public posts anyway, if they log in via another account, or via an incognito window, so there’s no real value to blocking in this sense.

But there is. Being able to block somebody means that they don’t automatically see your updates in their feed, which can be a valuable deterrent for problematic users. Users who’ve been subjected to harassment and abuse find great value in this option, because even though blocked users can still switch view someone’s public updates, the fact that they’re not readily available is a limiting factor in many cases.

Which is why both the App Store and Google Play Store require a blocking option, and it does seem like X’s attempts to water down and scale back blocking could be in violation of these parameters.

But X owner Elon Musk is convinced that blocking is a negative element, mostly because of block lists, which he believes restrict the reach of his posts, and other profiles, in the app.

I’m not sure how block lists would “create a DDoS vector”, but essentially, Elon’s been trying to get rid of blocking as a function because it limits the reach of people’s posts whom he thinks should get more visibility.

That seems to be the main motivation behind this move, and how it’ll actually work in practice is not entirely clear. But Elon has confirmed that blocking will still exist, it’ll just be harder to find.

It seems problematic, and potentially a cause of bigger issues than it’s intending to fix. But again, Elon thinks that his reach is being restricted by block lists, and this is the only way that he can negate them. So he’s pushing forward, seemingly in a cautious manner, in order to meet app store requirements.