Twitter abandons changes after outcry

Published Dec 17, 2013

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New York - Twitter Inc., responding to public protests, scrapped changes to its “block” function that for a short time yesterday had let posters interact with other users on the microblogging site even if they were blocked.

Twitter had introduced a change allowing users who were blocked to maintain interactions with a person’s public information by being able to read, favourite and re-post messages.

After just one day, the San Francisco-based company reinstated the old policy where blocking a user would restrict them from following a person or receiving notification of their replies, Twitter said in a blog posting.

“We never want to introduce features at the cost of users feeling less safe,” the company said.

“Moving forward, we will continue to explore features designed to protect users from abuse and prevent retaliation.”

Twitter has stepped up the pace of development as it seeks to deliver revenue growth in line with a valuation that has doubled since the company’s initial public offering last month.

This week, the company enhanced its keyword-based advertising service and added photo capabilities for direct messages sent via the site.

Twitter also started including pictures and videos more prominently in users’ streams in October, and introduced enhancements in August to make it easier to track conversations.

The company’s shares rose 6.6 percent to $59 at the close in New York, the highest since Twitter’s IPO in November.

The stock has surged 127 percent since it began trading. - Bloomberg News

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