Elon Musk has followed through with his vow to allow blocked users on X to see posts of accounts that blocked them.
The controversial policy shift, announced at the end of September, has gone into effect, though if you peruse an account that has blocked you, you’ll see the message “you can view public posts from [that user], but you are blocked from engaging with them. You also cannot follow or message [that user].”
Previously, when users blocked a user or account, it prevented that party from not only replying to tweets or mentioning the user, but from seeing what they were posting in the first place.
The change comes from Musk, who last year said the block feature “makes no sense” and needed to be “depreciated in favor of a stronger form of mute.” At one point, he also threatened to do away with blocking users entirely, except in direct messages.
His argument was that it was easy to work around a block, as users could simply create another account and follow someone’s tweets from that. Additionally, the social media site has said doing away with the block function will allow for greater transparency and reduce possible doxing.
What’s unclear is whether Musk’s changes fall in line with Apple’s app store guidelines, which mandate that social networks offer “the ability to block abusive users from the service.”
The changes to the block functionality are just the latest in a long line of tweaks Musk has overseen at the company. Others include preventing users from seeing who liked their posts. The blue check mark, which used to verify a user’s identity as authentic, has become a badge for paying users—and, of course, he changed the name and logo of the company as well.
