X is now allowing people you’ve blocked to see your posts

X is now allowing people you’ve blocked to see your posts.

Public accounts on X can still have their posts seen by blocked users, even after blocking them, unless they switch to private mode. Over the weekend, X updated its Help Center page to outline the changes, clarifying that while blocked users can view public posts, they cannot reply to or repost them. As before, blocked users cannot follow you, and you cannot follow them. Also, if a blocked user visits your profile, they will see that they’ve been blocked.

X stated that this change aims to provide more protection for those who have been blocked. In a post from its Engineering account, X explained that blocking “can be used to share and conceal private or harmful information about those blocked. With this update, users can monitor such actions, promoting greater transparency.”

However, critics argue that these updates could harm vulnerable users, such as abuse survivors. Thomas Ristenpart, a computer security professor at Cornell Tech and co-founder of the Clinic to End Tech Abuse, stressed that controlling who views one’s posts is essential for survivor safety. “We often hear of social media posts enabling abusers to stalk or incite further harassment,” he explained. “Removing users’ control over blocking is a significant setback for survivor safety.”

Since Elon Musk took over Twitter in 2022, he has relaxed many of the platform’s former rules regarding hate and harassment. As part of a free speech initiative, he dissolved the company’s Trust and Safety advisory council and restored accounts previously banned for hate speech, harassment, or spreading misinformation. When a nonprofit research group reported increased hate speech on the platform, X filed a lawsuit against them, which was later dismissed.