A
handful
of
changes
coming
to
X
may
be
pushing
users
to
its
competitor.
Bluesky,
the
decentralized
social
platform,
says
it
added
500,000
new
users
in
a
day
this
week.
The
new
wave
of
signups
could
be
related
to
several
controversial
changes
on
X
in
the
last
few
days.
This
week,
X
users
got
a
pop-up
message
notifying
them
that
their
posts
will
be
visible
even
to
users
they’ve
previously
blocked.
Those
accounts
still
won’t
be
able
to
interact
with
their
posts,
but
it’s
a
substantial
change
to
how
the
block
feature
works
that
could
open
users
up
to
harassment.
“Today,
block
can
be
used
by
users
to
share
and
hide
harmful
or
private
information
about
those
they’ve
blocked,”
an
official
X
account
posted.
“Users
will
be
able
to
see
if
such
behavior
occurs
with
this
update,
allowing
for
greater
transparency.”
It
goes
without
saying
that
blocking
is
a
safety
issue,
particularly
for
users
facing
harassment
on
a
platform
or
people
wanting
to
create
distance
between
themselves
and
someone
else
in
their
life.
But
Elon
Musk
has
expressed
his
disdain
for
blocking,
and
this
change
to
blocking
was
teased
last
month.
After
users
got
an
explicit
notification
about
it
this
week,
Bluesky
wasted
no
time
in
using
it
as
a
recruitment
tool.
Meta
didn’t
immediately
respond
to
questions
about
whether
Threads
saw
similar
spikes
in
new
user
signups.
Separately,
updates
to
X’s
terms
of
service
have
also
caused
alarm,
particularly
around
how
data
is
used
to
train
artificial
intelligence
models.
In
the
most
current
version,
the
X
terms
of
service
page
reads,
in
part:
“You
agree
that
this
license
includes
the
right
for
us
to
analyze
text
and
other
information
you
provide
...
for
use
with
and
training
of
our
machine
learning
and
artificial
intelligence
models,
whether
generative
or
another
type.”
That
clause
didn’t
exist
as
of
October
9th,
according
to
the
Wayback
Machine.
The
new
terms
of
service
also
say
that
any
disputes
with
the
company
will
be
brought
before
the
US
District
Court
for
the
Northern
District
of
Texas
—
where
a
judge-slash-Tesla-investor
was
presiding
over
multiple
lawsuits
involving
Musk
and
his
companies.
US
District
Court
Judge
Reed
O’Connor recused
himself
from
a
case
in
which
X
sued
a
group
of
advertisers
after
NPR
revealed
he
owned
Tesla
stocks;
O’Connor
is
still
overseeing
a
case
in
which
Musk
is
suing
watchdog
organization
Media
Matters.
The
updated
terms
of
service
take
effect
on
November
15th.
X
didn’t
immediately
respond
to
a
request
for
comment.
(Originally posted by Mia Sato)
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