Harun Ozalp | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Users of X, previously often called Twitter, will not be capable of block feedback from undesirable followers, in keeping with a put up by X proprietor Elon Musk on Friday, eliminating what’s lengthy been seen as a key security characteristic. Blocking will solely be accessible for direct messages, he mentioned.
“Block is going to be deleted as a ‘feature’, except for DMs,” Musk wrote Friday. He was responding to a put up from the account of Tesla Owners Silicon Valley, asking, “Is there ever a reason to block vs mute someone?” The group behind that account promotes the electrical automotive firm, the place Musk is CEO.
Since buying Twitter final 12 months for $44 billion, Musk has overhauled the corporate, shedding many workers, reinstating beforehand banned accounts and just lately rebranding the corporate and platform as X. He did not present a motive or a time-frame for eliminating the block perform, solely saying in a follow-up response that “it makes no sense” and that the mute perform will nonetheless be accessible.
Users have been ready to make use of the block perform to guarantee that hateful content material and harassment does not present up of their feed in response to their posts. The mute characteristic simply retains the person consumer from seeing the undesired responses, however does not get rid of them from others’ feeds.
Twitter customers have additionally lengthy employed the block characteristic in boycotts and to keep away from seeing adverts from particular manufacturers or promoters on the platform.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, an investor within the new Twitter alongside Musk, mentioned in a post that the corporate ought to focus its consideration elsewhere.
“X should really solve the bots & spam problems before removing blocks,” wrote Zhao, whose firm owns one of many world’s largest crypto exchanges. “Just my 0.02.”
— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.
WATCH: Elon Musk is posting incessantly to distract focus from his enterprise
Source: www.cnbc.com”