Even though James Woods was one of Elon Musk’s biggest celebrity supporters when the
Tesla CEO took over the
Social Media site formerly known as Twitter, Musk showed that he wasn’t so inclined to reciprocate the actor’s good will and gracefully accept his criticism of his pledge to remove the platform’s “block” option. Musk, apparently being Musk, told Woods to “delete your account.” Musk then hit “block” on Woods — the very button the two men had been arguing about, Perhaps being thin-skinned, Musk didn’t take too kindly to Woods calling him a “greedy capitalist” and dismissing his claims of being a defender of free speech. “Musk, whom I once championed, is only doing this to protect his advertisers anyway,” Woods bout the proposal to end the “block” feature. “Users of X are mere pawns to turn the site into an electronic shopping mall. The man I thought was a defender of free speech is just another greedy capitalist. Disappointing, but not surprising.” After Musk blocked Woods, the
Actor wrote, “(Your) prerogative, sir, which is exactly my point. Have a nice day.” It’s hard to gauge why Musk so cavalierly lashed out at a celebrity fan who has 3.4 million followers and who shares many of his conservative, anti-woke sensibilities. One X user but Musk also likes to play provocateur and is “ever a bundle of contradictions and inconsistencies,” . As and the Daily Beast reported, Musk and Woods began arguing on X Friday after Musk mused on the possibility of removing the block button and Woods disparaged this plan. Doing so, the double-Oscar nominee said, would make the site “untenable” for public figures such as himself. “In the midst of a libel suit I was targeted by 30 trolls the defendant enlisted to harass me,” Woods wrote . “X will be untenable for people like me, who are willing to share their identities. If he does this, I will have no choice but to retire from this site.” When a supporter of Woods responded to the post, writing that “we got to make sure that doesn’t happen. You’re one of the most important people on here,” Woods “If @elonmuskremoves the ability to block concerted harassment by trolls or organized political entities, how will ‘X’ be any different from Jack Dorsey’s horrid Twitter?” After Woods confirmed that Musk blocked him, he expressed gratitude to his supporters and insisted that he didn’t really plan to go anywhere. “The recurring theme in your many heartfelt DM’s was a fear that I would leave X,” . “I’ve have now decided I will never leave, and will only ever be silent when they find an excuse to remove my account.” Woods also said he had “battled the oppressive boot of censorship before, and will continue until the Stasi at X find an excuse to bury me for good.” Woods is no doubt referring to the times he was suspended or blocked from
Twitter when he posted politically-themed messages that were said to be misleading or tinged with conspiracy theories and in violation of the platform’s terms of service, For this so-called battle against “the oppressive boot” of Musk’s censorship, Woods received support from people in divergent political circles. Some were Musk fans, the
New York Post reported. “This is a huge mistake,” known as “Wall Street Silver” wrote. “Block is a critical feature on this app. … There are certain evil people that users just don’t want following them or replying to them. Scammers, cyber stalkers, etc. I suspect many people would abandon X if they can’t block the harassing accounts out of their lives.” From a different perspective, Monica Lewinsky about the dangers of removing the block feature: “Please rethink removing the block feature. as an anti-bullying activist (and target of harassment) i can assure you it’s a critical tool to keep people safe online.” Musk responded to his critics on Sunday with taunts, writing that it was “pretty fun blocking people who complain that blocking is going away.” But X users in turn by responded by saying that Musk would essentially be
shooting himself in the foot. They wrote “a community note” — which allows posters to offer clarifications and corrections on content that could be misleading — which states that doing away with the “block” feature could be a violation of the terms of service of Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store,” the New York Post said.