Twitter makes it easy to block unwanted followers, but there are disadvantages to blocking.
If you block someone, they can easily tell they're blocked because they can no longer see your Twitter activity, and this can serve as a point of pride or irritation.
If you want a more subtle way to end a Twitter relationship, you can do what's commonly referred to as "soft blocking."
How to soft block someone on Twitter
To soft block someone, you simply block them as you ordinarily would, then immediately unblock them. Blocking forces the other person to unfollow you and erases your direct message history, but because you then unblock the person, they can still see your tweets, so they don't appear to be blocked. It gives the impression that they unfollowed you by accident, or perhaps due to a glitch on Twitter.
Keep in mind that when someone is soft blocked, they can still follow you again if they choose to, so this will not necessarily end your relationship on Twitter (depending on how persistent the other person is). You still have the option to mute or block the user later.
The steps to soft block are almost exactly the same on both the web and mobile app.
1. Start Twitter and go to the profile page for the user you want to soft block.
2. Select the three dots at the top of the page.
3. In the dropdown menu, choose "Block @user."
4. In the pop-up window, confirm you want to block the user by selecting "Block."
5. The user's profile page will now have a button marked "Blocked." Tap it and then, in the pop-up window, tap "Unblock @user." Alternatively, you can select "Undo" in the banner that immediately appears when you block the user.
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