- X is changing the block function where users can still see your posts even when you have blocked them.
- Following this change, people are moving away to a new platform called Bluesky.
- Bluesky has since gained more than half a million new users in a day.
Since Elon Musk took the helm of Twitter, err… I mean X, controversial changes have become a part of the platform. Recently, the platform announced that it will allow block accounts to see your posts, though they won’t be able to interact with them. This didn’t sit right with long-time Twitter users, and that’s why they are flocking over to a new platform called Bluesky.
The official Bluesky account shared a post about half a million new users who joined in the last day. This is a big feat for any up-and-coming platform, and I understand why people choose Bluesky. It looks and feels pretty similar to Twitter in its heyday. The interface is simple and squeaky clean, as if someone just revived the blue bird back from its ashes.
The Bluesky team quoted X’s announcement of changes to the block function and welcomed new users to their platform. The post by the X engineering team itself has been received quite poorly and rightfully so. Blocking helps to protect people from any further online harassment or distance themselves from someone whom they don’t wish to interact with.
So this change just makes things worse as people will still be exposed to further exploitation or bullying on the platform after they have blocked the individual. Elon Musk also shared his opinion on the matter, saying “High time this happened”.
This isn’t the only change on the platform, as Verge reported. X’s Terms and service page has a new clause on how it uses your data to train its AI. It reads, “You agree that this license includes the right for us to analyze text and other information you provide … for use with and training of our machine learning and artificial intelligence models, whether generative or another type”. This was not present before October 9th, and they will take effect starting November 15th.
So with all of this going on, I can see that some people have just had enough and wish to move away from the long beloved platform to someplace new where things are a bit more sane. I was also curious about whether Meta’s X-like platform Threads received any spike in new users. But they have not released any numbers or talked on the matter.
The thing is that there is no shortage of better alternatives to X. But time and time again I have seen that people react to such changes. And as things start to cool down, they go back to where they came from. Because that’s where most of the crowd is. I guess Elon understands this quite well, and that is why he isn’t too afraid of implementing such changes. But what are your thoughts on the matter? Let us know in the comments.
