You will no longer be able to block annoying people on X (formerly Twitter): “Block is going to be deleted as a “feature,” Musk says

In what many are calling the absolute worst idea yet, Elon Musk announced today that X (formerly Twitter) is going to be removing the Block feature from the social platform

Responding to a question about if “there ever a reason to block versus mute someone,” Musk said:

“Block is going to be deleted as a “feature”, except for DMs”

Block is going to be deleted as a “feature”, except for DMs

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 18, 2023

In a follow-up post, Musk stated that blocking people makes no sense.

It makes no sense

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 18, 2023

It didn’t take long before X users started to voice their dissatisfaction with the idea.

“This is a terrible idea. By bringing back secret internal censorship and shadow-banning, while removing the ability of people to filter content and accounts for themselves, you’re super-charging the worst and most destructive aspects of the platform,” an X user by the name of Sean Davis tweeted.

“Let people choose for themselves what they want to see and who they want to interact with. Why is that so hard?” Sean asked

This is a terrible idea. By bringing back secret internal censorship and shadow-banning, while removing the ability of people to filter content and accounts for themselves, you’re super-charging the worst and most destructive aspects of the platform.

Let people choose for…

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) August 18, 2023

Musk has made a lot of changes to Twitter since he acquired the platform for a whopping $44 billion a year ago. Last month, he rebranded the social platform from Twitter to X to reflect his vision of transforming the platform into what he refers to as an “everything app.”  The change is set to reshape the platform and potentially expand its functionality beyond its traditional social media roots.

The company’s iconic blue and white bird logo of Twitter was retired, giving rise to the new identity, X. Renaming of Twitter services, including TweetDeck, quickly followed suit.