Elon Musk, taking over Twitter at the end of last year, announced the introduction of unlimited freedom of speech on the platform. The site (now known as X) still retained at least some moderators, but the billionaire decided to unblock many people previously blocked for violating the rules. Now he introduces another novelty that is supposed to “liberate” X.
Elon Musk announces. No more blocking accounts on X
The new owner of the social platform announced that the function of banning other users on X will soon be disabled. Until now, anyone could cut off any account from viewing their profile, quoting and retweeting tweets and, above all, commenting on posts and sending private messages.
It was a way (sometimes used for a good cause, and sometimes abused) to quickly block users spreading hate and hate speech. However, Elon Musk stated that this feature is no longer needed. Blocking will therefore be removed from X, but it will still be possible to disable the ability to receive private messages from specific people without notifying the banned person (previously, they were informed). However, those who are blocked will be able to continue commenting on all public tweets without limits.
Musk may fail Google and Apple. App X will disappear from stores?
Musk did not explain when exactly the feature will actually disappear from the platform and why he believes it is – as he wrote – “pointless”. However, this is probably the next stage of “liberating” X from the constraints that, in his opinion, limit the freedom of speech on the Internet. The billionaire self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” has repeatedly stated that Twitter should not block any opinion or speech. Opponents of this idea believe that it leads to an exponential increase in the amount of hate and hate speech on the Internet.
How, researchers discovered a spike in hate speech and anti-Semitic content on the platform since Elon Musk took control of it. The account administrators wrote that they have to regularly block authors of anti-Semitic comments and Holocaust deniers, as simply reporting these accounts is often ignored.
Interestingly, Elon Musk may also fall for Google and Apple. According to Google Play and AppStore policies, apps that allow users to generate their own content must be able to block abuse. In the worst case – and unless the billionaire gets along with these companies – application X may fly out of the smartphone application stores.
Source: Gazeta
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