soft-block

• softblock, soft block

soft-block (third-person singular simple present soft-blocks, present participle soft-blocking, simple past and past participle soft-blocked)

1. (Internet, transitive) To block (a user) on social media and then immediately unblock them, so that the user will (perhaps unknowingly) no longer follow or engage with the blocking user's posts.

   Coordinate term: hard-block

   • 2019 November 11, Brian Feldman, “How to Block, Mute, and Avoid Your Enemies Online”, in New York—Intelligencer‎:

     Softblocking is not a built-in function, but a strategy. There are a few ways of doing it, but the idea is to create a sort of inverted mute.

soft-block (plural soft-blocks)

1. (Internet) The act of doing this.

   Coordinate term: hard-block

   • 2019 November 11, Brian Feldman, “How to Block, Mute, and Avoid Your Enemies Online”, in New York—Intelligencer‎:

     Where a mute hides someone else’s posts from you, a softblock hides your posts from someone else, without completely blocking them. It’s less like building a wall and more like cutting a string.

   • 2022 October 27, Paloma Torres, quoting Potentially Petty/Hot Person, “Advice Column: Am I becoming hotter or just pettier? Paloma Torres answers the age-old question constantly on everyone's minds”, in The Eyeopener, volume 56, number 7, page 3:

     And just last week, I gave my partner the silent treatment for not answering me after five minutes. On social media, all I seem to do is hard-block people left and right, foregoing the soft-block altogether. If I’m not doing that, I leave rude comments with super sassy emojis or direct message my friends with passive-aggressive cat GIFs.