Elon Musk's plan to remove the blocking function on his online platform X (formerly Twitter) has met with criticism. For example, the Auschwitz Memorial pointed out that its profile regularly blocks authors of anti-Semitic comments and Holocaust deniers. If their accounts are reported, this often remains without result, said the memorial. With the blocking function you can protect the memory of the victims of the concentration camp.
Musk had previously announced to X that he would remove the blocking function for public posts. However, she should stay for direct messages. Musk had already written in June that blocking makes no sense. Instead, an extended mute function should suffice. After that, no steps in this direction were known at first.
What happens without a blocking function?
Blocking and muting have different consequences on X. If someone blocks an account, they will no longer see its posts. At the same time, you will not see any posts from the blocker and will no longer be able to interact. The function is helpful for victims, among other things, in the event of harassment and hate campaigns. Muting, on the other hand, only hides posts from an account. However, the muted person cannot see this - and they can still see the posts of the user who muted them.
It was initially unclear whether Musk would be violating the rules of the Apple and Google app stores by removing the function. Both platforms require social media apps to be able to block users for misbehavior. However, the wording leaves open whether only the platform operator or also the users must be able to do this. However, developers have reported app rejection in the past because the option was not intended for users.
The changes of Twitter under Elon Musk
Musk bought Twitter for around $44 billion last fall and announced, among other things, fewer restrictions on what can be said on the platform.
After taking over the online platform, Musk initiated a series of changes, some of which met with great criticism. In the course of restructuring the platform, the entrepreneur dismissed top Twitter management and more than two-thirds of the approximately 7,500 employees . He also had the blue verification tick removed from the accounts of numerous users who do not have a paid subscription. At the end of April, some media outlets, celebrities and other major Twitter accounts got the blue tick back without having signed up for the paid version.
Last year, Musk announced further plans for "Twitter 2.0 - The Everything App" with features such as encrypted direct messages (DMs), long-form tweets and payments.
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