New Delhi: Twitter has reversed changes it made to how people block other users, less than a day after they were introduced. The humbling reversal came as Twitter encountered user revolt for the first time as a public company.
"Earlier today, we made a change to the way the “block” function of Twitter works. We have decided to revert the change after receiving feedback from many users – we never want to introduce features at the cost of users feeling less safe. Any blocks you had previously instituted are still in effect," noted Twitter's blog.
Earlier, a blocked user can user can still view or tweet at the person who blocked him or her, but that activity will be rendered invisible to the victim as if the offending account did not exist.
Soon after implementing the policy, the service was flooded with angry users, including many who did not understand the nuances of the new policy, and hundreds had signed an online petition to reverse the change.
Twitter said the changes would protect victims of harassment who wanted to filter out abusive messages but feared that the act of blocking a user would prompt retaliation.
But with the policy change, users could prevent their harassers from following them or interacting with their tweets. Users are also explicitly notified if they are blocked.
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