X changes the way the block button works

Elon Musk does not hide that he is from the block button. X is now changing the way blockchains work on its platform, though it doesn’t (for now) fall short of Musk’s desire to remove the feature entirely.

Instead, X sets the visibility of responses in the context of a block. Previously, a user could block someone on X and still reply to their posts. And the person who was blocked won’t be able to see that reply or know that the person who blocked them engaged with their posts. This is now rolled back so that users can see direct replies even if the person posting has blocked them. In a post from X’s engineering team, the company said the change was “part of our ongoing commitment to align the block’s function with our principles as a public urban square.”

The post also hinted that there could be more changes to blocks, which is one of the most widely used safety features on the service. “Our goal is to allow users to control their experience while maintaining the public visibility of posts,” the company said. This appears to be consistent with previous comments by Musk, who said that a public ‘blocking’ feature “doesn’t make sense” and that “blocking will be deleted as a ‘feature’ except for DMs”.

So far, the blocking changes aren’t that drastic. In fact, they may even be welcomed by some users who want more visibility into what people are saying about them on the platform. But the fact that X is starting to change the visibility of previously blocked content could also be a sign of more significant changes to come.