PEN AMERICA: REMOVING BLOCK BUTTON ON TWITTER/X PUTS ANOTHER NAIL IN THE COFFIN OF THE PLATFORM
PEN.ORG
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 18, 2023
(NEW YORK)—In response to a thread on Twitter (now known as “X”) from Elon Musk that suggests he may end the platform’s block button, PEN America’s Viktorya Vilk, director for Digital Safety and Free Expression, issued the comments below:
“Elon Musk seems determined to make X (formerly known as Twitter) the least safe and least equitable social media platform on the internet. Before Musk acquired the platform, PEN America worked closely for years with Twitter’s human rights experts and trust and safety specialists to reduce the harm of online abuse against women, people of color, LGBTQ+ folks, and others disproportionately targeted online for their identities and professions. Since acquiring the platform, Musk has undone it all – and then some. He’s fired all of the human rights experts and most of the trust and safety specialists. He’s shut down one safety feature after the next or put them behind a pay wall. Removing the block button–a critical tool that so many writers, journalists, artists, and other users need to protect themselves from attempts to silence them with hate and harassment— would just be adding insult to injury and putting yet another nail in the coffin of a platform that is no longer Twitter, either in name or in spirit.”
–
In its story “Elon Musk’s Idea to Actually Make Twitter a Hellsite,” Slate Magazine writes, “Elon Musk said on Friday that he plans to do away with the block feature on X, the website that most people still call Twitter. Musk’s publicly stated case is a vague one: that blocking “makes no sense.” But it’s reasonable to think his motivations are more specific. Musk seems to have become aware by the week of this year’s Super Bowl that he’s one of the most commonly blocked users of his own website.”
The New Republic writes,”Elon Musk on Friday declared he wants to remove the block feature on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter—despite frequently using the block button himself. There’s also one other big problem: Musk’s desire to limit this blocking feature could also cost X its spot in various app stores.”
Musk’s plan sounds like lose-lose for everyone, including himself.
–Malcolm
