X Will Start Displaying Replies from Blocked Accounts

X (formerly Twitter) will soon be changing one of the core features of the platform: its block button.

In a post on Thursday, X's engineering team announced plans to allow users to see replies even from blocked accounts supposedly to protect the "overall integrity of our platform."

The post also hinted that the platform might be planning to add more changes to the block feature as evidenced by the statement to "allow users to control their experience while maintaining the public visibility of posts."

As of writing, X's engineering team has yet to indicate when the changes will begin or whether the new block feature will be immediately available to all users.

Elon Musk's X Keeps Pushing to Remove Block Feature

It is worth noting that this was not the first time the platform has tried to change how the block features work under Elon Musk's leadership.

The billionaire was reported last year to be pushing to remove the entire feature from X, aside from direct messages, because "it makes no sense."

Musk, who purchased Twitter in 2022, is often criticized on the platform for his politics and business management, often by accounts that have already blocked him and his followers to prevent them from flooding the comments.

How Will the Changes in Block Button Affect Users?

While Musk and X tout plans of changing the block feature as a way to further promote "our principles as a public town square," the move is expected to affect people in more ways than one.

According to a report from The Shortcut, the changes will help "solve" the scamming problem on X.

The report reasoned that scammers and hackers have long exploited the feature to fool unsuspecting victims into their schemes.

This works by having all comments and replies warning people filtered out, allowing scammers to disguise themselves as genuine accounts.

In the same manner, the block feature's changes are expected to worsen online harassment and cyberbullying on the platform.

Many users primarily use the block button on X to filter out bots, unsavory replies, and explicit images and videos.

While X now has a "hide replies" feature, many users still rely on the old Twitter feature to completely block other accounts from engaging with them.

So far, the initial responses to the proposed changes see the plan as more of a band-aid solution to the problem only made visible after Musk boosted the visibility of accounts subscribed to its premium services.