Musk says X, ex-Twitter, will remove blocking option – 08/18/2023 – Tech

Elon Musk said this Friday (18) that his social network, X (formerly Twitter), works to delete the platform blocking tool. Only the option to avoid receiving messages from unwanted people will be maintained, according to the billionaire.

The change, however, could take X out of the app stores. Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store require in their rules that social networks have the option to veto accounts. Failure to comply with the rules may result in removal from the catalog.

The contradiction was noticed by volunteer moderators, based on the community notes. This feature allows users to add context to posts they find uninformative or problematic.

Blocking is considered by experts and social media companies as a privacy and security tool in the digital environment. The feature can prevent cases of harassment, stalking (persecution on the internet) and doxing (leakage of personal data for the purpose of harm).

Elon Musk released the decision in response to a publication by Tesla’s vehicle owners club in Silicon Valley. The page asked if there is any reason to block or mute someone. The owner of X then said that the feature would be removed.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Musk said.

The Tesla vehicle owners page in Silicon Valley later published a poll on who was in favor of the change proposed by Musk. The opposite options represent more than 80% of the votes until 6:30 pm this Friday.

Asked by Sheet via email, X did not respond until the publication of this report. The social network no longer has press representation in Brazil since it was bought by Musk in October last year for US$ 44 billion (about R$ 220 billion).

Elon Musk bought the social network after a string of criticisms of moderation decisions, such as the withdrawal of former US President Donald Trump from the platform. Musk defines himself as a radical defender of free speech.

This Wednesday (16), however, an analysis by the US newspaper Washington Post identified that X was delaying access to links to content on the websites of Reuters and the New York Times and rivals such as Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. Both media outlets had been criticized by Musk after publishing critical reports about the billionaire.

Clicking on a link from the social network to one of the affected sites caused a delay of about five seconds before the page could load, according to the newspaper, which cited tests carried out on Tuesday.

By late Tuesday afternoon (15), X seemed to have eliminated the backlog. The social network confirmed that the delay has been removed, but did not elaborate.