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"Twitter has changed its policy on user blocking in order to combat retaliation on the social network. Previously, blocking someone meant they were unable to see your activity and you were unable to see theirs.  However, blocked users are now able to follow, retweet or favourite tweets from an account they&amp;#039;ve been blocked by (unless that account is protected), but they won&amp;#039;t be informed they&amp;#039;ve been blocked. The blocker won&amp;#039;t see any retweets, favourites or mentions from the account they&amp;#039;ve blocked and they won&amp;#039;t appear in their followers list. Twitter spokesperson Jim Prosser said that the social network changed its policy on blocking to tackle the anger users feel knowing they&amp;#039;ve been blocked. &amp;quot;We saw antagonistic behavior where people would see they were blocked and be mad,&amp;quot; he said.  Prosser added: &amp;quot;Twitter is public, we want to reinforce that content published in a public profile is viewable by the world.&amp;quot; A note on Twitter&amp;#039;s updated Help Centre reads: &amp;quot;If your account is public, blocking a user does not prevent that user from following you, interacting with your Tweets, or receiving your updates in their timeline. &amp;quot;If your Tweets are protected, blocking the user will cause them to unfollow you.&amp;quot; Digital Spy has reached out to Twitter for comment. Earlier on Thursday (December 12), Instagram launched a Twitter rival with its Instagram Direct service, a method of sharing photographs and videos with specific groups of people and individuals. Previously users could only share content with their entire network, but the new system enables them to send pictures and video footage to up to 15 friends of their choosing. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tech/internet/news/a537979/twitter-changes-blocking-policy-to-combat-user-retaliation/>