SAN FRANCISCO: Elon Musk said on Friday his social media company X would scrap a feature that allows users to block posts from specific accounts.

“Block is going to be deleted as a ‘feature’, except for DMs,” Musk posted, indicating the option would still be available for “direct messages” between users of the social media platform, formerly known as Twitter.

The feature is used to restrict interaction with specific accounts on the platform.

Musk has repeatedly cited a desire for free speech as motivating his changes, and lashed out at what he sees as the threat posed to free expression by changing cultural sensitivities.

Since the tycoon bought the social media platform for $44 billion last October, its advertising business has collapsed, in part because of its looser approach to blocking hate speech, and the return of previously banned far-right accounts.

According to nonprofit organisation the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), hate speech has flourished on the platform.

X has disputed the findings and is suing the CCDH.

In December, Musk reinstated former US president Donald Trump’s Twitter account, although Trump has yet to return to the platform.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2023