Elon Musk was hit with a community note on X, previously known as Twitter, after he announced plans to remove the “block” feature from the app.
The X owner stated Friday, “Block is going to be deleted as a ‘feature’, except for DMs.”
Block is going to be deleted as a “feature”, except for DMs
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 18, 2023
That promoted the swift addition of the note, which originally claimed Musk could not remove the “block” feature because of policies of Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store.
“Elon Musk cannot do this,” the note began.
The note also included two links — one to Apple guidelines and the other to Google policies.
Under Apple’s user-generated content section, it states, “Apps with user-generated content” must have “the ability to block abusive users from the service.”
Should X delete the block feature?
Yes: 20% (1 Votes)
No: 80% (4 Votes)
Google’s policy contains similar wording.
An account for “Tesla Owners” commented that even Musk can clearly get a community note, causing Musk to add, “True, however that note is incorrect and the community already voted it away.”
True, however that note is incorrect and the community already voted it away
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 19, 2023
A note with different wording no longer claims Musk “cannot” make the move, but does point out that X removing the block feature “could lead to X being removed from these platforms.”
The founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, agreed with Musk’s decision to forgo the block feature.
Dorsey decided to use the 100 percent emoji in addition to saying, “mute only.”
💯. mute only.
— jack (@jack) August 18, 2023
“Mute” is an option that allows users to remove tweets from their timeline but without blocking the account where they originated.
Musk, a self-described “free speech absolutist,” has been committed to making changes on the platform since it was announced he would be purchasing it in April 2022.
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk noted.
“I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans.
“Twitter has tremendous potential — I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it,” Musk added.
