If I were to describe Twitter aka X, "toxic guilty pleasure" is what my experience has been for the past decade. But I prefer some zen in life, so I no longer fight with anonymous assholes and public-domain douchebags. I just block them, never to see their shit takes again.
But those days of peace are about to end. Elon Musk — who spent $44 billion to buy Twitter, fucked up the user experience, then renamed it to X — now says the block feature will be gone soon. The best you can do is mute accounts that you don't like.
Musk says it makes no sense. He's plain delusional.
Now, here's the crucial difference. When you block an account, they can no longer see your tweets, and neither will you see their fucked up content pop up on your timeline. But if you mute someone, you will only avoid the bad content from an online fiend, but they will still be able to see all your content and DM you.
I can't stress how dangerous that is. For anyone who has faced harassment and stalking on Twitter, blocking has been the safest option so far. Reporting on Twitter barely ever works, and I can personally vouch for that, both in personal and professional capacity as a journalist.
For better or worse, blocking has been the best feature on Twitter as keeps me from seeing terrible takes and raising my own blood pressure. It’s the case with a lot of other people I know, be it journalists, activists, or anyone who has a voice and becomes a target of spineless keyboard warriors.
I hope Musk reverses this decision, but if not, it just might prove to be the final straw that breaks the camel’s back. Twitter is already fucked, and a healthy portion of its users have already left. This move could very well trigger another mass exodus.