Musk Announces Adjustments To X Features

• Elon Musk’s social media platform X will remove the “Block” feature, except for direct messages (DMs), aiming to promote free speech
• Musk’s changes stem from concerns about changing cultural sensitivities and threats to free expression on the platform
• The platform’s advertising business declined due to looser hate speech policies and the return of previously banned accounts

Elon Musk announced on Friday that his social media platform X will discontinue a feature that allows users to block posts from specific accounts.

“Block is going to be deleted as a ‘feature’, except for DMs,” Musk wrote, indicating that the option would still be available for “direct messages” between users of the social media platform, formerly known as Twitter.

The feature is used to limit platform interaction with specific accounts.

Musk has repeatedly stated that his changes are motivated by a desire for free speech and has lashed out at what he sees as the threat to free expression posed by changing cultural sensitivities.

Since the tycoon paid $44 billion for the social media platform last October, its advertising business has collapsed, partly due to its looser approach to blocking hate speech and the return of previously banned far-right accounts.

According to the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), hate speech has flourished on the platform.

X disagrees with the findings and is suing the CCDH.

Musk restored former US President Donald Trump’s Twitter account in December, though Trump has yet to return to the platform.

In early 2021, the ex-president was barred from Twitter for his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by a group of his supporters seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

According to media reports, X recently reinstated rapper and designer Kanye West’s account, which had been suspended for about eight months.

Last fall, West, who now goes by Ye, posted an image showing a swastika interlaced with a Star of David, prompting Musk to suspend the artist from the platform.