X (formerly Twitter) CEO Elon Musk has officially announced the end of one of the social media platform’s long-established features: blocking. Musk confirmed this change in an answer to web developer Nima Owji, who first shared the news, and announced that the long-awaited innovation has finally arrived.

The block button is going away on X

In X, known as Twitter, users could prevent people they did not want to see and interact with their posts thanks to the block feature. However, with the new regulation, blocked accounts will now be able to view the blocker’s posts, but they will not be able to interact such as liking, commenting, sharing or sending direct messages.

As you may remember, Musk said last year that this feature could be completely removed, but he backed down from this idea after a while.

This decision has unsettled many users, especially those who experience harassment or stalking issues. They are worried that with the new regulation, malicious people can view posts even if they are blocked and use this information for malicious purposes on other platforms. For example, a post by user X can be screenshotted and shared on Threads, Facebook or Instagram.

While the reasons behind Musk’s change remain unclear, some claim that the move is aimed at increasing the company’s engagement rates and may even be linked to the upcoming US presidential elections. However, hard times may be ahead for X. Google and Apple are demanding the ability to block social media platforms in their app stores, and if this regulation is removed, the pressure to remove X from the app stores could begin.