Twitter has a bit of a reputation. Whether it be trolls or the ‘sanctimoniously self-righteous who love to second-guess’, it is a realm where small things can cause big ripples.

Blocking a user on Twitter is not a solution to every gripe. It is, however, a quick and easy way to achieve an outcome.

What does it achieve and how? Here, SMK explores Twitter blocking.

What is blocking?

On Twitter, blocking essentially makes an offending account invisible to you. It also goes some way towards making your account invisible to blockee.

So long as they are logged in, a blocked account won’t be able to follow you, message you, tag you. They also won’t be able to view your tweets, your followers, your likes or your lists. You might still see their name occasionally, if other users mention them.

Blocked users aren’t notified that they’ve been blocked, but there are ways they can find out. This is not an invisible solution.

How to block

There’s two quick ways to block an account:

1      From the gear/settings menu on the users’s account page

2      From the menu that’s attached to each of their tweets.

What blocking looks like

To the blocker, visiting the page of the profile of the blocked account makes it pretty clear that you've successfully blocked the offending account.

Blocking can be noticed

Blockees are not notified nor alerted that their account has been blocked. The most common way it can be discovered is if they try to look at the profile of an account that has blocked them. Instead of seeing the usual profile page, they’re told of the block.

Blocking doesn't solve everything

Blocking is not an invisible solution. The blockee can find out that you've blocked them.

Blocking an account won't stop them talking about you. They can't tag you in photos, but they can still post what they want to post.

Also, if the offender logs out of their account—or uses somebody else's account—they can then see all your public content. The blocking only works when they are logged in with the blocked account.

So, blocking is definitely not always the way to solve your Twitter woes. If you need something more subtle, more effective, or more legal, look for other avenues of resolution.