Twitter Inc. was forced to bring a change to its "block" feature on Thursday after triggering a barrage of criticism from users who said the new policy empowered perpetrators of online abuse, the Agence France-Presse reported.
"Earlier today, we made a change to the way the 'block' function of Twitter works," Twitter's Michael Sippey said in a blog post late Thursday in California.
Twitter restored the ability to block unwanted followers from peering at posts, quickly reversing a short-lived policy change that was initiated on Thursday.
"We have decided to revert the change after receiving feedback from many users - we never want to introduce features at the cost of users feeling less safe," Sippey said. "Any blocks you had previously instituted are still in effect."
According to AFP, the turn-around came just hours after the San Francisco-based company modified its blocking mechanism to let unwanted Twitter followers re-tweet, like, or peer at messages in public accounts of people who block them.
The sudden move was met with a wave of protests from many who worried about being harassed by stalkers or abusers. The change to block lists essentially blinded people to unwanted followers but did not prevent them from looking back, AFP reported.
The tactic came with what Twitter portrayed as the advantage of not alerting unwanted followers to being blocked. Prior to the update, a blocked Twitter user was barred from seeing the person's account or posts, with those shut out made aware of what was taking place.
Twitter reasoned the change included mitigating range of people who learn they are blocked and the reality that public posts at the globally popular one-to-many text messaging service are just that, public, AFP reported.
Many users joined in to support #RestoreTheBlock hashtag on Twitter for turning a block list into a mute switch.
"We made #RestoreTheBlock happen," Katie Collins tweeted with the Twitter handle @GrlRedBalloon, thanking users of the service who "mobilized the troops."
Twitter thanked users for their passionate feedback, while contending that the block list change was well-intended and well-reasoned, AFP reported.
"In reverting this change to the block function, users will once again be able to tell that they've been blocked," Sippey said.
"We believe this is not ideal, largely due to the retaliation against blocking users by blocked users (and sometimes their friends) that often occurs," Sippey said.
