The Twitter block is a powerful tool. Whereas muting is a subtle cleansing of your timeline — the person you mute never knows, though you have to wonder, how many people might have muted you?? — blocking is Twitter’s carpet bomb.
Photo: Jasn via Flickr
When you block someone:
- They cannot see your tweets. You cannot see theirs.
- You unfollow each other.
- If they try to see your profile, they will see that you’ve blocked them.
- They cannot DM you.
For the full repercussions, here’s Twitter’s guide. Right now, I want to focus on the DMs issue. Because this was recently brought to my attention:
if someone blocks you, you’re unable to see all the DMs they sent you before the block, so take screenshots for future records
— White Guy Confidence (@karenkho) November 24, 2017
Blocks happen for all sorts of reasons. Maybe someone was being abusive. Maybe muting wasn’t strong enough, and you wanted to fully protect your timeline from someone’s presence. Or maybe you got in a Twitter fight — in public or in DMs — and one of you gets fed up and pulls the trigger.
If that happens, it’s useful to know that any DM history from before the blocking will be erased. Be safe: take screenshots, keep your receipts.
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