Musk plans to remove personal "blacklists" from X, which may violate the rules of the App Store and Google Play

Elon Musk has announced that the function of blocking users may be removed from the X social network (former Twitter). This may violate the terms set by Apple's App Store and Google Play for apps where users create content.

Blocking is a tool that allows an X user to completely isolate themselves from other users and prevent them from contacting him, viewing content he creates, or subscribing to him in any way. Blocking allows you to avoid serious problems that sometimes arise on online platforms, such as stalking, harassment, and barrage of insults.

In addition, a blocked user cannot see their blocker's subscriptions and subscriber lists, as well as their likes. A blocked user cannot be tagged in a photo or sent a private message.

For apps with user-generated content, the App Store's policy requires "the ability to block aggressive users," "a filter to prevent the publication of inappropriate material in the app," and "a mechanism to notify and respond to issues of offensive content in a timely manner." These rules also apply to Google Play: the platform requires apps to have "an internal system to block user-generated content and users themselves."

It is noteworthy that the X expert community responded to this intention of Musk and noted that his initiative may violate the rules of application stores. After some time, the businessman announced that along with the function of blocking private messages, the platform would offer the possibility to "mute" unacceptable users: they will retain access to the profiles of the users they mute, but they will no longer see the messages of the users they muted.