“It makes no sense,” claims Elon Musk about the existence of the block option on X (Twitter) as he apparently works to eliminate more options for users of his social media platform.
Today, Musk responded to a user’s generic question of muting vs blocking on the platform by saying, “Block is going to be eliminated as a ‘feature,’ except for DM’s.”
Such decisions, as you would likely correctly assume, result in users becoming more agitated with Mr. X, as significant pushback has already begun.
Why such madness? Musk believes that blocking is completely unnecessary, apparently, because the platform has a “mute” option. However, muting someone only makes them disappear to you, not to everyone else, so that user that gets muted can still reply with insults to you that everyone else sees except for you. Of course, that user would not know they are muted, either.
Blocking someone means that you are stopping that person from viewing any of your posts when they are logged in to their account. Though the app is also a website in which anyone can view your page publicly (unless you have it set to private), it still prevents that person from replying to you at all. Social media is filled with the most annoying among us, so when they keep up their negative feedback of your content, wouldn’t you want to have the option to stop them from ever commenting on it?
Musk later replied to someone else by emphasizing the use of the mute option, adding, “You will still be able to mute accounts and block users for DM’s.”
It seems that Musk rather enjoys eliminating options from users. Last month, he tweeted (or X’d, or whatever it is) that he will eliminate day mode so that X can be a night mode only platform. However, there is good news. Users pushed back so much about Musk taking away that option for users, including those who prefer night mode, that he changed his mind and didn’t follow through with it.
That also means there is still hope for X users that the block option will stay if they complain enough to Musk — but only if he doesn’t mute them.