Surprise, surprise. Elon Musk, the former Twitter owner of

In its new form, “blocking” still allows someone to view your posts and profile, eliminating an important way for some users to protect themselves from abuse on the site.

And it seems that this was the final straw for many users who were unsure about staying on the site.

Immediately after the changes were announced, BlueSky, a rival platform founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, announced that it had added more than 100,000 new users. Almost twelve hours later, the number climbed half a millionthe company said Thursday — and it shows no signs of slowing down.

In fact, the influx of registrations grew so large that the website temporarily went down.

Bluesky, for his part, enjoys pointing out Musk's blunders.

“At Bluesky we take online safety seriously,” the social media platform’s official account wrote on X. “If you want to block someone, you can!”

This is definitely not the first time there has been an exodus of Twitter users under Musk's leadership. A similar wave of people tried to join Bluesky when it hit Apple and Android stores last year. And in general, X's user base has been steadily declining since its acquisition.

But the most impactful incident was probably Musk's dispute with Brazil's top court, which led to Twitter being banned in the country after the billionaire refused to comply with a judge's order to remove accounts accused of spreading misinformation.

Musk initially blinked and eventually complied to get the ban lifted. But the damage was done: Bluesky gained over three million new users within days of the ban, the vast majority of whom were Brazilians.

Musk's penchant for shooting himself – and his companies – in the foot while giving his competitors an advantage is strong. Bluesky developers even reportedly have a name for when one of Musk's decisions results in a flood of newbies: an EME, or “Elon Musk Event,” according to journalist Joshua J Friedman.

In a long list of questionable things Musk has done with the platform, changing the blocking feature definitely ranks first. The feature now only prevents banned accounts from liking, replying, and reposting your tweets. But if your account is public, they can still see everything you post.

This is a decision Musk has been mulling over for at least a year. tweet Last summer, blocking in its typical form “made no sense.”

Now we get additional insight into why that is. Apparently it's the people doing the blocking who are the real problem, as they can use the feature “to share and hide harmful or private information about the people they block,” the platform's tech team tweeted.

People who would rather not be harassed or stalked see it differently. Blocking is pretty much the only way people can protect themselves from malicious people on social media. While users on Now these accounts have lost a useful way to stay under the radar.

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