Eccentric billionaire and man with way too much power over a website he doesn’t understand, Elon Musk, has rattled some internal feathers with his latest proposed Twitter (now called “X”) brainwave.
On August 19, Musk Tweeted that the “block” feature would be removed from the platform except in the case of preventing someone from sending you a direct message.
Community notes, an internal Twitter branch, then fact-checked Musk on his own platform.
The note stated that “If the ability to block users was to be removed, X would violate the policies of the App Store as well as the Google Play Store.
“Potentially, this could lead to X being removed from these platforms.”
It did go on to point out the caveat that web apps are not held to the same standard. Only apps that are hosted on the App Store (Apple) and the Play Store (Google).
The option to “mute” another user will stick around, but this only stops the muter from getting notifications about the person they muted.
Aqueel Miqdad, an engineer at Twitter, floated the idea of a “stronger” mute feature.
It doesn’t stop them from interacting with the user’s Tweets.
Musk taking away the “block” feature presents a raft of issues with regard to personal safety on the platform.
Even some of his supporters, including the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley account, have made their opposition to the plan known.
This is especially true for persecuted and marginalised people as well those being stalked, abused or harassed.
Monica Lewinsky, who famously had an affair with former President Bill Clinton and subsequently became a cyberbullying activist due to her treatment following the story breaking, was one of the most vocal critics of the proposed change.
At the time of writing, it’s unclear the extent to which Musk’s proposed “mute only, no blocking” will be effective and whether it will be strong enough to satisfy the Play and App Stores’ safety guidelines.
Only time will tell.
