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Transcript

Elon Musk's Worst Idea Ever? Removing the "Block" Button from Twitter · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:01
  Welcome back to the Elon Musk podcast.
• 0:03
  Today we're discussing Elon Musk's latest alteration to the
• 0:06
  platform we now know as X formally Twitter.
• 0:10
  A significant change that has caught everyone's attention is
• 0:13
  Musk's decision to eliminate the ability for users to block other
• 0:18
  accounts. Asserting that the feature makes
• 0:20
  no sense in this decision, along with others, comes as part of a
• 0:25
  broad transformation of the platform. 6 Must became the
• 0:28
  owner after a $44 billion deal. Last year in a post dot X, Musk
• 0:33
  announced Block is going to be deleted as a feature.
• 0:37
  Except for Dms, ending that the Block feature makes no sense.
• 0:41
  Previously, the platform described blocking as a way for
• 0:44
  users to control their interactions, especially in
• 0:47
  cases of harassment or threats. Instead, Musk has now advocated
• 0:51
  for using the Mute feature, a less restrictive option.
• 0:55
  This simply hides posts without unfollowing or blocking an
• 0:58
  account. But before we go further, let's
• 1:01
  take a quick break. Stay with us.
• 1:03
  We'll dive into the subject, including reactions from
• 1:06
  industry leaders like former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and how
• 1:09
  this change affects user interactions on the platform.
• 1:13
  Now, welcome back to the Elon Musk podcast.
• 1:15
  Let's continue our exploration of Musk's decision to remove the
• 1:20
  Block feature on X, which allows users to restrict specific
• 1:24
  accounts from viewing and interacting with their public
• 1:27
  posts. And among those reacting to the
• 1:29
  decision was Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter, who
• 1:34
  expressed his approval by posting a 100% emoji and then
• 1:39
  saying mute only in reply to Musk.
• 1:43
  This endorsement from Dorsey as a significant voice to the
• 1:46
  conversation. The Musk has been openly
• 1:49
  critical of the Block feature in the past, stating in June that
• 1:52
  blocking public posts makes no sense.
• 1:55
  It needs to be deprecated in favor of a stronger form of
• 1:58
  mute, though we can't clarify what this stronger form of mute
• 2:03
  is quite yet or what it might look like.
• 2:05
  And the uncertainty extends further as it's not clear if
• 2:08
  accounts previously blocked by users will suddenly become
• 2:11
  unblocked with this change. And as an alternative, users can
• 2:15
  still set their accounts to private, controlling who can
• 2:19
  view and respond to their posts. But for many, this change might
• 2:22
  take away a valuable tool in managing their social media
• 2:25
  experience. And Musk, already known for his
• 2:28
  roles as CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and currently the world's
• 2:31
  wealthiest person, has continued to shake things up since
• 2:34
  acquiring the platform in October of 2022.
• 2:38
  From firing top executives to laying off a large percent of
• 2:42
  the personnel and even bringing in former NBC Universal Ed boss
• 2:46
  Ledi Yakorino as CEO, Musk's vision for X has been ambitious.
• 2:51
  However, these changes haven't been without controversy, and
• 2:55
  this latest week raises new questions about our control and
• 2:58
  privacy on the platform. It reflects Musk's hands on
• 3:01
  approach as he continues to oversee X's product and
• 3:05
  technology teams, with Yakorino focusing on advertising and
• 3:10
  business operations and Twitter's rival Blue Sky faced
• 3:14
  performance challenges. After Elon Musk's announcement
• 3:17
  concerning his own social media platform A Musk declared that X
• 3:21
  will abandon the block feature, and following this declaration,
• 3:24
  Blue Sky users encountered slowed load times and other
• 3:28
  errors in the site status page showed signs of performance
• 3:31
  issues. Now, this incident comes at a
• 3:33
  time when Blue Sky has often found itself dealing with an
• 3:36
  influx of users in response to Twitter's unpopular changes.
• 3:40
  And while Blue Sky's team has not yet confirmed the exact
• 3:43
  cause of these recent issues, new registration data on the
• 3:46
  decentralized platform seems to suggest a sudden spike in
• 3:51
  activity. Now, Blue Sky Status Page
• 3:54
  reported degraded performance in its personal data server, or
• 3:58
  PDS, and an investigation was underway.
• 4:02
  This PDS serves as an accounts trusted agent within the
• 4:05
  network, which could explain the slow load times and other
• 4:08
  disruptions. Now Tech Memes CEO Gabe Rivera
• 4:12
  added to the story by reporting that his new sites were facing
• 4:15
  difficulties posting the blue sky due to timing out when
• 4:19
  trying to utilize Blue Skies APIs and it's a situation
• 4:24
  unfolded. Blue Sky slowly started to
• 4:26
  resolve these issues. The status page was updated,
• 4:29
  indicating that they had fixed the main problem, but that some
• 4:33
  images may not be loading with a fix actively in progress.
• 4:37
  Now on the other side of the story, both Blue Sky and Threads
• 4:39
  began trending on X, leading to speculations that another
• 4:43
  migration from Twitter or X the Blue Sky could be imminent.
• 4:47
  As users respond to this news, Blue Skies dependence on Twitter
• 4:51
  for user referrals is a noteworthy point.
• 4:54
  Data from similar web shows that a few months back, 86% of social
• 4:58
  media referrals to Blue Skies app website were coming from
• 5:01
  Twitter. This percentage fell to 78.8%
• 5:04
  over the past 28 days, reflecting a shift in user
• 5:07
  behavior and overall traffic. And the complex dynamics between
• 5:12
  these two platforms and how users react to changes provides
• 5:16
  an intriguing look into the world of social media
• 5:18
  competition. It serves as a lesson for
• 5:20
  technology companies about user expectations, network
• 5:23
  resilience, and how changes in one platform can send ripples
• 5:27
  across numerous others. Now this incident also brings
• 5:31
  attention to the nature of decentralized platforms like
• 5:33
  Blue Sky and highlights the challenges they can face.
• 5:37
  The ability to handle surges and user registrations and activity
• 5:40
  is crucial for maintaining both performance and trust within the
• 5:44
  community. Now, thank you for joining us
• 5:46
  today on the Elon Musk podcast. We hope you found this
• 5:49
  exploration into social media's competitive environment
• 5:52
  informative and don't forget to hit the subscribe or follow
• 5:55
  button on your podcast platform that you're listening on right
• 5:58
  now. It's free and it only takes a
• 5:59
  second. And stay tuned for more
• 6:01
  insightful stories from around the world of Elon Musk.
• 6:06
  Take care of yourselves and each other, and I'll see you in the
• 6:09
  next one.