You won't be able to block Elon Musk (or anyone else) on X

It's Monday, August 21, 2023.

Elon Musk says the service formerly known as Twitter is getting rid of the option to block other users, except in DMs. There, you’ll still be able to block unsolicited messages from anyone sending malicious, offensive missives, which is for some, the majority of their DMs.

But Musk said it "makes no sense" to block other users instead of muting them. Outside DMs, the mute option will still be available. There is a wrinkle here, noted on Musk’s own tweets. If the company did nix the ability to block users, it would violate policies for both Apple’s App Store and Google Play Store. (A web app, however, would be unaffected.)

In the spring, X killed off the platform's free API, which broke many third-party apps. Just one year earlier, Twitter (as it was known at the time) started recommending third-party apps to help mitigate harassment on the platform. Many of these, like Block Party, stopped working after those API changes.

– Mat Smith

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Lamborghini’s new all-electric concept car was inspired by spaceships

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Microsoft retracts AI-written article advising tourists to visit a food bank on an empty stomach

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Microsoft reportedly published — and retracted — an AI-generated article that recommended people visit a Canadian food bank as a tourist attraction. The article recommended catching a baseball game, honoring fallen soldiers at a war museum and… swinging by the Ottawa Food Bank.

It’s a bleak mistake. Paris Marx first called out the story on X (formerly Twitter). “People who come to us have jobs and families to support, as well as expenses to pay,” the AI-written section about the food bank section read. “Life is already difficult enough. Consider going into it on an empty stomach.” The article was pulled when Microsoft was asked for comment. The article’s author was merely Microsoft Travel, suggesting real people may not have been involved in its creation. We hope not.

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