Twitter reverses changes to blocking feature after mass protest

In a quick reversal, Twitter has rolled back most of the controversial changes it made to its “block” feature after a sharp outcry from users.

The mass protest on Twitter was the first for Twitter as a public company. Executives held an emergency meeting to deal with the escalating situation. Twitter users took to the service to protest under the hashtag #RestoreTheBlock. They said the changes to the block feature would encourage online abuse and harassment on the service. Many women in particular said they would no longer feel safe on Twitter, where they say they receive rape and other threats. Under the original system, users could prevent people who were harassing them from following them and interacting with their tweets. Under the new rules that Twitter rolled out Dec 12, a blocked user could view the person’s tweets and tweet at the person. Twitter said it was trying to protect victims of harassment from retaliation. But users did not see it that way.