While Twitter can lose its block feature, Twitch users gain a more powerful functionality

It has been almost a week since Elon Musk made a tweet declaring he will delete the blocking feature on Twitter (now X), and it led to users debating it and many claiming that it will make the social media experience unsafe. But while Twitter decides to take away users’ right to block others, Twitch is taking the exact opposite approach. According to reports, it is getting a new feature that will allow streamers to totally block users to the extent that they cannot even watch their streams.

In the Patch notes E20 stream, it was announced that Twitch will be getting new features. Trevor Fisher, the company's senior project manager, said, "People want their bans to do more," and introduced a new blocking feature that will let streamers block specific users. Fisher also said that it was a highly request feature.

Twitch gets a blocking feature

Twitch has had a blocking feature in place for years now. But it is a mere chat block, meaning the blocked user loses his commenting privileges, but he can still watch the stream. However, many said that this was not enough and allowed the user to still keep tabs on the streamer and use other methods to interact.

This is why it is believed that this blocking feature is a stronger option for streamers to keep certain users away. However, it is not IP blocking, which means if a user changed their accounts, they will be able to escape the block.

Twitter might lose its blocking feature

Last week, Musk replied to a tweet that was discussing whether there is ever a reason to block a user over muting them, and said, “Block is going to be deleted as a “feature”, except for DMs”. He also added, “It makes no sense”. This made many users of the platform think that Twitter may really get rid of its blocking feature.

Musk has been a long-term critic of the blocking feature. In June 2023, he said, “Blocking public posts makes no sense. It needs to be deprecated in favor of a stronger form of mute”. And he has also complained about large blocking lists for messing up the recommendation system. He has spoken in support of users who have criticized mass-blocking campaigns in the past.