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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/dec/13/blocked-twitters-users-can-still-interact-follow
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Blocked Twitter users now able to interact with and follow accounts | Blocked Twitter users now able to interact with and follow accounts |
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Twitter has been accused of reducing the power of blocking people to simply “muting” them, with a revision of the function now allowing users to continue to follow and interact with an account holder who has blocked them. | |
The blocking function previously allowed users to stop someone interacting with their account while the blocked person was logged in. Once blocked, they could not see tweets from the blocker while using their own account. They could still log out and view any public account but could not tweet at it, or see the updates in their timeline. | |
Under the change a blocked user can now do all those things, but their interactions will not be visible to the blocker. | |
A person will also no longer be aware that they have been blocked. A Twitter spokesman has told media the new policy is to prevent retribution from people angry at being blocked. | |
“If your account is public, blocking a user does not prevent that user from following you, interacting with your tweets, or receiving your updates in their timeline,” an update on the Twitter website said. | |
“If your tweets are protected, blocking the user will cause them to unfollow you. | “If your tweets are protected, blocking the user will cause them to unfollow you. |
“We saw antagonist behaviour where people would see they were blocked and be mad," Twitter spokesman Jim Prosser told Forbes. | |
"Twitter is public, we want to reinforce that content published in a public profile is viewable by the world." | "Twitter is public, we want to reinforce that content published in a public profile is viewable by the world." |
A hashtag #restoretheblock began trending in the US and Canada among users angry at the new policy. | A hashtag #restoretheblock began trending in the US and Canada among users angry at the new policy. |
Twitter has been contacted for comment. | Twitter has been contacted for comment. |
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