Elon Musk’s X Has Changed What Blocked Accounts Mean: What Happens To Your Privacy?

Elon Musk doesn’t like people blocking him on his social platform X, which is why billions of the users will now have a different meaning when they block someone. The Musk-owned platform is going to have a new meaning for blocked accounts.

By that we mean, any account that you have blocked will be able to see your posts. Thankfully, these accounts still cannot interact with these users but even then X is clearly changing the dynamics of blocking an account and most people might not like it.

Soon we’ll be launching a change to how the block function works.If your posts are set to public, accounts you have blocked will be able to view them, but they will not be able to engage (like, reply, repost, etc.).

— Engineering (@XEng) October 16, 2024

The new change is being teased for X users, who are seeing a new message on their feed. The post says, “If your posts are set to public, accounts you have blocked will be able to view them, but they will not be able to engage.”

X Blocking Accounts Has A New Meaning

It all started last month, when a post from Musk hinted he wants to get rid of the whole blocking concept, and offer a more refined version of muting accounts. For all these years, blocking an account on Twitter, now X, meant you see the icon, “You’re blocked” when you want to see their profile.

But the new version of blocking accounts is anything but that. After all, it allows the account to see the posts of the person who has blocked them and changes the equation and purpose of the feature in the first place. Musk has talked about his dislike for the block feature and we are now seeing his personal opinion translate into a functional change for all the users.

Understandably, people are angered by these changes and don’t understand the logic of having blocked accounts see your feed.

The platform already has undergone massive changes since Musk took over a few years back. His focus on monetising X has become evident with the impetus on making people pay for the features like edit post button, verified badge and more. Advertisers are moved away from X and more changes brings further criticism, which will alienate businesses from the platform in the long run.