In last week’s G-Code newsletter (you're missing out if you ain't subscribed, homie!), we took a stroll down memory lane and reminisced on the most hilarious moments in Twitter history. It's now time to settle back into reality.
Elon Musk is doing a fantastic job when it comes to ruining Twitter, the site he rebranded as “X” out of nowhere. (Don’t worry, I won’t be referring to the microblogging site as X—his mama named him Clay, I'm gonna call him Clay.) Musk’s latest smooth-brained scheme involving the social network is declaring that he’s going to dump the block feature.
He said it “makes no sense.”
Maybe Musk took a look at some Twitter data and saw how many users have him blocked, and as a consequence of his hurt feewings, he’s seriously considering removing one of the most essential features of a social media platform.
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The block keeps harassers at bay. This is an increasing concern thanks to the toxic environment Musk has created on the site. The blue check—once a status symbol, particularly among the most haughty workers of the media—has become a harbinger of the most stupid, racist, sexist, or transphobic comments one can make. And Musk is purposefully highlighting verified (i.e. paid) users by way of his algorithm, which has turned the experience of digging into the replies on a tweet akin to visiting the types of subreddits that have been banned by Reddit. Just awful.
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Erasing the block feature is probably about Musk’s ego, but it’s also about how his free-speech crusade is giving weight to bigoted reply guys. But this could be construed as a privacy issue: What famous or wealthy person would use the site if anybody can have truly unfettered access to them? There’s also the issue of the app's inclusion in Google and Apple’s digital stores hinging on this reportedly mandatory feature. However, the block function is one of the few features that acts as a barrier to making the site unbearable, and that levee appears to be breaking. (At the very least, the block feature will apparently still work for DMs.)
Countless women and people of color need the block feature—especially those with large followings. And sometimes you just need to block people you don’t f**k with, 'cause they got hoe in their blood. I know I got a few.