Here's what forced Twitter's hand to bring back the 'block' button

If anyone ever doubted the impact of social networks, consider this a quick lesson.

Nishtha Kanal|Dec 13, 2013, 13:35:58 IST

If you ever doubted the impact of social networks, this is a quick lesson in the power of crowdsourced opinions. Over Thursday and Friday, Twitter changed the functionality of the block button on its service and changed it back after an outcry on the website itself forced its hand.

Twitter had changed the block feature on its service to essentially turn it into a glorified mute button. When you blocked someone on the service earlier, the person was not able to tweet to you, favourite or retweet your tweets and contact you in any way possible. With the change, the block button ended up merely muting your abusers.

Unblocking the block

While you wouldn’t be notified of any interaction from their part, they could mention you, retweet your tweets and basically go through your timeline to find more information to attack you with. The company’s rationale behind this change was that the abusers would not be instigated to take a worse step to attack the victim, once he realised he was blocked.

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That explanation, however, did not go down well with Twitter users who pointed out issues like abusers being able to retweet their victims’ tweets to a wider audience involving more trolls. Promptly, Twitter changed its mind, reverting to the older 'block' button.

Here are some tweets that caught the most attention on Twitter, probably playing a role in getting the site to reconsider its decision:

Hey @twitter, please #RestoreTheBlock button. Add a mute button by all means. But give us block back first.
— James Moran (@jamesmoran) December 13, 2013

So guy harassing you outside your window. "Block" used to be thick curtain. Now it's one-way mirror facing wrong way. #RestoreTheBlock
— Cedar Riener (@criener) December 13, 2013

Probably no one will ever threaten to rape me because I state a strong opinion. That is not true for many women online. #restoretheblock
— Joshua Eaton (@joshua_eaton) December 13, 2013

Problem with the blocking change is that all of these trolls can now FOLLOW and RT me to their troll posse and that w/ increase harassment
— Zerlina Maxwell (@ZerlinaMaxwell) December 13, 2013

This is what happens when you have no women at the top of your company @twitter. This ish is dangerous.
— Zerlina Maxwell (@ZerlinaMaxwell) December 13, 2013

So @jack a look at my mentions is a case study in how trolls attack & @twitter (non)block enables their followers to troll too. #notcool
— sfpelosi (@sfpelosi) December 13, 2013

@safety @twitter this non-blocked blocking is for the birds. It doesn't stop them from tweeting and having their friends RT. Pls reconsider.
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) December 13, 2013

By Nishtha Kanal

Intrigued by all things social, Nishtha will invariably tweet about you. When not tweeting or writing about the next viral video, you will hear her proclaiming her love to Metallica, James Hetfield, Opeth, Akerfeldt and all bands that go 'growl'. She also obsesses about ACP Pradyuman and South Park and you will always find her moving around with a book. Her focus is on all the happening stuff in the tech domain, and she won't hesitate to take a shot at some of the oddball devices that make their way to our labs.