And Now I Block You Again Goodbye Tweet

Twitter Blocking Was Pointless, But Now It'southward Not

Update: Twitter has decided not to alter its cake role later all. People will once again know you blocked them.

This article is from the archive of our partner .

Ah, Twitter Blocking. The tool of choice for the social-media-savvy-but-passive-aggressive user (also for people who keep getting spammed and don't want to see cheap iPad offers filling upward their @ mentions).

Blocking didn't do much, really. Unless your account was private, the blockee could nevertheless meet your tweets. He but couldn't follow or re-tweet you lot. Merely it was comforting to know that you slightly inconvenienced your blockee, wasn't information technology?

Perhaps all-time of all, he'd know you lot blocked him because if he tried to follow you, this happened:

And so satisfying.

But no longer! Yes, Twitter has changed its blocking policy. At present, it says, "if y'all cake another user, that user will not know that you have blocked them."

With this new policy, unless your account is protected, the blockee tin can still follow you, add y'all to lists, see your tweets in his timeline, etc. The blockee can run across everything!

As for the blocker ...

When you cake them, you lot will no longer see:

• The user in your follower list
• Whatsoever updates from that user in your Home timeline, including any of their Tweets that were retweeted past accounts you follow
• Their @replies or mentions in your Connect tab
• Any interactions with that user'due south Tweets or business relationship (i.e., favorites, follows or Retweets) in your Interactions or Activity tabs

... which effectively renders block useless. Or, as BuzzFeed's John Herrman writes: "Blocking is no longer an assertive act that sends a clear 'I don't want to talk to you' bulletin. It's just a quiet button."

People are furious:

I have people who have harassed and threatened me blocked. Did they really get rid of the cake? @twitter if so I have become delete my acct.

— Amanda (@AWitchyChick) December 13, 2013

The new Twitter cake policy is like hearing men sexually harass women in the street and giving the women earplugs. #RestoreTheBlock

— Joseph Nobles (@BoloBoffin) December 13, 2013

Have yet to see a plausible caption how the new block policy helps anyone but the people who were getting blocked.

— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) December xiii, 2013

Honey @twitter The new block policy will permit users that make threats to perpetuate the behavior. Have you lot non studied their hive behavior?

— Lizz Winstead (@lizzwinstead) December 13, 2013

Dear @Twitter , #RESTORETHEBLOCK is happening considering your new block policy facilitates a spectrum of corruption on your service. Please mind.

— Warren Ellis (@warrenellis) December 13, 2013

Non having block is an inconvenience for me, but a genuine danger for others. #RestoreTheBlock

— Jacques Frost (@jephjacques) December 13, 2013

Every bit a victim of cyberstalking, @Twitter, I beg y'all to reverse the changes to the block feature so I tin protect myself http://t.co/kAlEYA643L

— Stephanie Haberman (@StephLauren) December 13, 2013

Yous tin still manually block people by having them killed.

— Alison Forns (@alisonforns) December 13, 2013

Trans women don't just get messages of hate; they are threatened daily. A useless block function puts their lives at risk, @twitter.

— Lauren Rankin (@laurenarankin) Dec 12, 2013Other

Others don't call up it's a big deal:

Re block backlash: If you have a public Twitter account & used "Cake" to keep ppl from reading your tweets, you were doing information technology incorrect.

— Kashmir Hill (@kashhill) December 13, 2013

Personally, I think the new way Twitter handles blocks makes a lot more than sense and will be more effective. http://t.co/BVWfxcIWf3

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) December 13, 2013

As a woman who was stalked and under police force supervision for three mos, Twitter's cake condition changes wouldn't take stopped the stalking.

— Erin Doland (@erdoland) December 13, 2013

On the plus side, organizations/individuals can't block journalists from following them w/o privatizing accounts http://t.co/qZENEua3Ne

— John McQuaid (@johnmcquaid) December 12, 2013

told Forbes' Kashmir Colina that the modify was made to help victims of Twitter harassment, not injure them:

'Nosotros saw antagonistic behavior where people would run into they were blocked and exist mad,' says Prosser. He as well says 'cake' doesn't really brand sense when the content is still visible. 'Twitter is public, nosotros want to reinforce that content published in a public profile is viewable by the world.'

... or just reinforce it to the advertisers it needs to bring it to profitability, as will soon be demanded by all those new shareholders.

Update, ten:47 pm ET: Looks like all those angry tweets got to Twitter. Information technology merely announced that it's going back to the one-time cake rules and pretending this whole thing never happened:

Earlier today, nosotros made a change to the way the 'cake' part of Twitter works. Nosotros have decided to revert the change afterward receiving feedback from many users – we never desire to introduce features at the price of users feeling less condom. Any blocks you had previously instituted are withal in effect.

In reverting this alter to the block office, users will once again be able to tell that they've been blocked. We believe this is not platonic, largely due to the retaliation against blocking users by blocked users (and sometimes their friends) that often occurs. Some users worry just every bit much about post-blocking retaliation as they do about pre-blocking abuse. Moving frontward, we volition continue to explore features designed to protect users from abuse and prevent retaliation.

Nosotros've built Twitter to help you create and share ideas and data instantly, without barriers. That vision must coexist with keeping users safe on the platform. We've been working diligently to strike this balance since Twitter's inception, and we thanks for all of your support and feedback to date. Give thanks you in advance for your patience equally we go along to build the best – and safest – Twitter we possibly can.

Certain enough ...

Damn!

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.

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Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/12/twitter-blocking-pointless-now/356103/

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