42% of daily X users have a negative view of it – losing the blocking feature won’t help

X CEO Elon Musk announced He will have his tooth extracted early this week X(formerly Twitter)’s blocking feature. Soon, users you’ve blocked will be able to see your posts again.

Nina Owji, a web developer, posted, “X is about to remove the current blockermeaning if an account is public, their posts will also be visible to blocked users!”

Also: X’s first transparency report since Musk reveals surprising contradictions

Musk’s answer: “It’s time for this to happen. Blocking will block that account from interacting but not from seeing public posts.”

Some people use blocks to make X bearable. I use blocks to stop monsters from yelling at me and to avoid seeing the trash spewed by some X users.

I have been using social media since day one network used And online services before the Internet such as CompuServe, GEnie, and Prodigy. None of them, at worst, reach the lowest level of X.

However, Musk believes that this move will enhance the platform’s transparency. Actually? Does empowering users to choose what content they do and don’t want to see equate to transparency?

However, Musk needs to see all the posts and let you see his posts.

As Kate Conger and Ryan Mac observe in their new book, Character limit: How Elon Musk destroyed TwitterWhen Musk attended the 2023 Super Bowl as a guest of Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch, he was upset that President Biden’s tweet about the game had more views than his tweet. Musk left the game early to fly back to his office, where dozens of employees were summoned to meet him on Sunday night to explain why Biden gets more views than him. Result? They changed X’s algorithm, so you’ll often see Musk’s tweets even if you don’t follow him.

Also: FTC report reveals massive data collection by social media brands – how to protect yourself

Have you ever wondered why you start seeing posts from Musk and people you’ve never heard of at the top of your feed? Now you know.

By the way, you can’t block Musk or these other “super users”. I tried.

Why is blocking necessary?

What really worries me is the other consequence of blocking being removed. There are people who send me hate tweets because of my technology views. Ironically, some of the cruelest things have come from people who think I’m in Microsoft’s pocket because I’m not pro-Linux enough. I have to ask my friend Linus Torvalds What did he think about it when we next met?

After blocking these people, I never heard from them again. That’s funny. When I’m out of sight, I’m no longer in their minds. No blocks, I hope they come back.

Also: In an unexpected twist, Meta suddenly crushed Apple in the war of innovation

However, in the bigger scheme of things, that’s not a big deal. Many others have much more serious concerns. As rapper ZUBY said, “There are some REALLY bad actors on social mediaIt’s sad.” That’s for sure.

Too many women I know find themselves constantly having to fend off online stalkers. They used to be able to block them, and that was it. Not anymore.

It’s simple. As the bored Cat Mother said, “We need the ability to block abusive people from viewing our profiles.”

What X needs is stronger block, not this one.

Also: 5 little-known web browsers that will finally break your Chrome addiction

If Musk insists on passing the weakened block, even more users will flee X. In In the US, the number of daily active X users dropped to 27 million in February 2024, down 18% from a year earlier and 23% since Musk took over in November 2022.

By the way, the people who stayed didn’t like X very much. I am one of them. A YouGov survey in August found 42% of people who use X on a daily basis have a negative opinion of it.

X alternatives worth checking out

Of course, you don’t have to stay with X. There are plenty of other good options.

my favorite, blue skyis now open to everyone. It looks and functions in many ways like Twitter. It has a maximum post length of 300 characters and features like, reply, and retweet features. It also includes an “Interesting” feed for trending posts and a “Following” feed for accounts you follow.

Also: More than 2 million new users flocked to Bluesky last week – here’s why

On Bluesky, you can block users. Once you block someone, they can’t like, reply, mention, or follow you, and their posts, replies, and profile will be hidden from you. Blocks are public so anyone can see your block list. You can also mute a person.

mastodon is another popular Twitter alternative social media network. Mastodon is an open source-based social network of small interconnected communities Fediverse. This has advantages and disadvantages. You can see your friends and their posts on other sites, but liking or commenting on them can be difficult.

Start with Mastodon it’s that simple. Find a community that interests you and create a profile. You can create posts of up to 500 characters, respond to topics, and share blogs from your selected communities. It’s simple to block someone in the same Mastodon community. Once done, they can’t see or interact with you, and vice versa.

Also: I tried replacing Twitter with Bluesky, Threads and Mastodon: What I found

I don’t like Meta topic at first, and I’m still not a big fan. However, if you are already an Instagram or Facebook user, you can also try Threads. Its interface is not like Twitter but it is not difficult to use fluently. If you find you can’t stand someone on Threads, you can block them and like everyone else, they won’t be able to see you or your posts. The opposite is also true.

One strange thing is that if you block someone’s profile on Threads, their Instagram account will also be blocked. This is also true on Instagram. If you block them on Instagram, they will also be blocked on Threads. The same is not true for Facebook. If someone bothers you there, you have to block them separately.