back to article Elon's latest X-periment: Blocked users can still stalk your public tweets

Elon Musk has confirmed a change to X that will allow blocked users to view public posts. The change will mean that if a user blocks someone, their public tweets would still be visible by that account. However, the blocked account would not be able to engage with the post. It's always been possible to view someone's tweets if …

  1. MiguelC Silver badge
    Meh

    Meh

    If they're public xeets,the blocked user would only need to view them without logging in (when it works) or create another account - not a great deterrence

    1. katrinab Silver badge

      Re: Meh

      You can't view anything without logging in now, but creating a new account will work.

      1. mark l 2 Silver badge

        Re: Meh

        You can certainly still view posts on Twitter without being logged in if you go on there from a web browser, as ive just managed to view the Elon 'Pedo Guy' Musk and Royal Mail Twitter accounts and scrolled back over their posts going back years and clicked on a few videos and images without it forcing me to login.

        FYI This was using Firefox with Ublock Origin installed, so maybe it was blocking something that would have been forcing me to sign in should I had visited the site without Ublock running.

        1. katrinab Silver badge
          Meh

          Re: Meh

          Maybe, I tried it in Incognito Mode on Chrome, and I don't think I have UBO configured to work in Incognito.

          1. Yorick Hunt Silver badge

            Re: Meh

            Works for me using Brave on Android.

            Not that I'm actually interested in what goes on there, but sometimes even publications of good repute link to posts on that platform - and there's no effin' way I'm ever going to create an account.

        2. DS999 Silver badge

          Re: Meh

          You can certainly still view posts on Twitter without being logged in

          Only the post, none of the comments.

          I wish he'd made good on his threat to block showing posts at all if you're not logged in. I think he actually did that for a few days, but backed off when he realized it would cause a lot of people to leave Twitter as it would no longer be a useful place for them to distribute "news" and such. Because people like me would never login to read anything, limiting the audience of anything posted there to the small universe of Twitter users.

          1. collinsl Silver badge

            Re: Meh

            IIRC that happened for a while before he bought it too, or I may be misremembering the timeline. There was certainly a period though where you couldn't see anything without logging in, and before that you couldn't click on "show more" without logging in, nor could you see more than the top 5 comments etc.

        3. Irongut Silver badge

          Re: Meh

          I can't view posts on Xitter using Firefox. A few sites I read like to embedd Xeets in articles, I can not even read them there.

          I don't have an account to log in. I use UBlock Origin.

          The availability of Xitter to non-users like myself varies with the whims of its Führer.

    2. Someone Else Silver badge

      Re: Meh

      From the article:

      However, the decision to alter how blocking works again could concern account holders and privacy campaigners.

      It should be clear by now to even the most casual of observers that Herr Muskrat doesn't give a flying fuck about account holders or privacy campaigners. He, much like his newfound bromance tRump, only cares about stroking his overly-inflated ego.

      Seems to me that this is YAN good reason to un-ass the platform. Folks, you can get your daily dose of cat videos and hate speech elsewhere.

      Chances are that all the good folks who would be upset by this have already un-assed the platform, leaving only those who can't be arsed to realize they're being played.

      1. Mage Silver badge
        Facepalm

        Re: Meh

        He's rich by luck and most of it is massively overvalued shares, not by genius.

        Just boycott him.

      2. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

        Re: Meh

        Did he uban that guy who was posting tweets about his private jet flights ?

        1. collinsl Silver badge

          Re: Meh

          Of course not, the rules don't apply to him.

          1. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge

            Re: Meh

            "Free speech for me, not for you".

          2. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

            Re: Meh

            You dont seem to appreciate that Elon isnt a human he is a god. Ask the American media, and gods are not affected by human laws or equalities.

  2. Andy 73 Silver badge

    The story goes..

    ..an engineer told Musk his account was the most blocked on Twitt.. X.

    So, of course he wants you to see his Tweets, even if you block him.

    Self motivated as usual.

    1. Andy 73 Silver badge

      Re: The story goes..

      One downvote... hi Elon.

    2. Catkin Silver badge

      Re: The story goes..

      This scenario wouldn't be affected by the change. Perhaps if Musk wants to view tweets from people blocking him, though I doubt he'd personally have had an issue before.

  3. WolfFan

    and once again

    the very best thing to do with Twitter/X and Arsebook and all their ilk is to NOT HAVE ACCOUNTS THERE. They can't follow you around if you're not there.

    Hint: I don't have accounts on anything even close to antisocial media except here on El Reg and over on Linksys, and I haven't posted anything on my Linksys account in years. Well, I do have USENET access, but killfiles work there. The remaining idiot who follows me around really hates it when I point out why he got booted from the Royal Navy 40 years ago and has, for the most part, stopped. Every now and again he starts again, and I remind him. He's not real bright even for a self-hating raging queen who really likes Big Black Men in certain ways despite being exceedingly racist.

    1. Anonymous Coward Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: and once again

      If you think they can't track you online if you don't have an account with them, you very much misunderstand the online targeted advertising industry.

      1. WolfFan

        Re: and once again

        Ad-blockers, NoScript, and Privcy Badger will block a lot of the targeted ads; there's a reason why I use FireFox. Not having an account will keep me far away from them and untouchable by the morons infesting antisocial media. Especially if the only name they have is a handle adopted years ago on usenet. As David the idiot noted in the original post found out, there are lot of WolfFans on usenet; he once jumped on the wrong one and it was very amusing to watch him try to extract himself from the mess. Especially as that particular WolfFan was gay and I went way out of my way to let him know of Our David's attitudes. David got the clan called in on him. It was beautiful.

        1. AbominableCodeman
          Facepalm

          Re: and once again

          Oh my sweet summer child, if only it were that easy.

          You use DNS? an ISP? You have relatives and friends with Whatspp on thier phones or who use social media themselves, you have a mobile phone (let alone 'smart')? Need to use unicorn sites that won't work without JS?

          You are still very much tracked. Much as we may catch a murderer by his 3rd cousin's DNA. You need to make that medical appointment or book that ticket on some bloated, badly written wordpress site which uses google fonts.

          The only way to win is not to play.

  4. b0llchit Silver badge
    FAIL

    The main reasons people block others is for their own safety/privacy. This will also allow trolls to mass report people they disagree with.

    For safety you would have deleted your twitter account when musky took control. If there is one troll in the room, then it is musky, who disagrees with everybody except himself(*).

    (*) And I'm not even sure he agrees with himself with his self-contradictory ways.

  5. steviebuk Silver badge

    Not that I like Twitter

    Its only good for a few retro computer/game posts and WHS_carpet (about WHSmith Carpets, originally). But other than that, its shit under his watch.

    The point however is, if you're a politician using it, then what you say is public record, so even if you've blocked someone from replying they should still be able to read the bollocks you post on Twitter.

    1. Catkin Silver badge

      Re: Not that I like Twitter

      Plus, if an individual wishes to spread abusive lies, they could block the target to slow down them finding out.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Not that I like Twitter

      Careful...

      Elon SKUM might block your access because you called it Twitter. He hates that with a vengeance. He spent all that $$$$ on the shitfest and then more to rebrand it 'X' but people still refuse to call it 'X'.

      He, like his master Trump has lost the plot. All the sane part of the world can hope for is that DJT is burnt at the election stakes like Guy Fawkes on 5th Nov. Then we might hear less of Trump and Musk.

      As an aside, if Trump was elected, won't Elon the brilliant be sent back to S Africa under his mass deportation scheme? [ducks to avoid incoming]

  6. MachDiamond Silver badge

    Isn't this a duh?

    If you block somebody, fine, they can't engage with what you post. No retweets, no comments, etc. If you don't want that person to see your xitts at all, you get into the realm of having to approve everybody individually. It's like the general purpose computer that can run any program except the ones The Man doesn't want you to run. The 3D printer that can print any shape except......

    1. Sora2566 Bronze badge

      Re: Isn't this a duh?

      The ability for people you block to falsly report every Xweet you make sounds like the real problem to me.

  7. Manny Bianco

    If ever there was an advert for not taking ketamine, Musk is it.

  8. Roger Kynaston

    moron alert

    Others here have pointed out that the best thing to do is to delete your account. As far as I can tell, never having used it, is that the only users left are polical journos and politicos. If everyone did this then the problems assiciated with his latest brain fart - blocking in this case - would go away.

    1. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge

      Re: moron alert

      "I don't know anything about this thing, and here's what I reckon it is," is both a remarkably ignorant, and also arrogant position to take.

      I know plenty of people who still use Twitter (none of them call it X). There are still communities there that are separate from the toxic cesspit that is the whole, but they are being eroded. I acknowledge that I am missing out on some stuff by no longer having an account, but quite frankly, I'd had enough of Elmo's shit, and I decided that, on balance, I'd rather not be there.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    There are ways** to strip most tracking from twitter links, if for some reason you really need to see what's going on. In the last three years I have used in 5 times, always regretted it, and the time between relapses is increasing with exponential backoff so I hope I'll be ok.

    But perhaps it would be better for humanity if, similar to cigarettes and alcohol*, there'd be a huge health warning on any twitter page, warning about the inevitable corruption of your soul and the likely increase for antidepressants in the weeks to follow.

    Wikipedia specializes in screamy ads, so perhaps some code can be reused there.

    **https://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends?tab=readme-ov-file#twitter

    *I am not making the claim that this is effective. But if ads are the accepted form of the internet, then we may as well try to leverage it for a hopeful good end.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I’ve used Twitter, pre Musk

    There’s no way on the Flying Spaghetti Monster’s earth I’d use it now.

    My account was ditched quicker than you can say “full self driving on Mars”.

  11. Groo The Wanderer Silver badge

    "We asked X for a timeline and if it had considered the opinion of users against the update."

    Really? You had to ask if Elon gives a rat's patoot about what the users think?

    Short answer: No, the Nazi doesn't give a shit.

  12. TheMeerkat Silver badge

    The other feature needed in Twitter is to prevent blocking someone if you were the last person answering their tweet.

    The bad losers often do this - answer a tweet then immediately block the person whose tweet they answered.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Social media

    I’ve heard of it

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