It’s not every day you discover someone in the headlines has blocked you on Twitter, even though you’ve had no interaction with them.
That happened to lots of people this week.
On Monday and Tuesday, Twitter users posted dozens of screenshots showing Garry Tan, the new CEO of powerful startup accelerator Y Combinator, had blocked their accounts, with many expressing surprise and confusion.
“Never heard of him, and apparently he’d prefer it to stay that way,” one user tweeted.
As the new head of Y Combinator, which is based in Mountain View, Tan will lead an organization that has helped to launch several thousand tech companies, including household names like Airbnb, DoorDash, Dropbox and Reddit. Tan was an early partner at Y Combinator, then left to start a venture capital firm called Initialized Capital.
The Twitter noise is hardly unusual, and blocking people is perfectly fine, experts including Twitter say. Tan and other big names in tech have blocked many users for years. “It can be an effective way to handle unwanted interactions from accounts you do not want to engage with,” Twitter says on a help page. Accounts you block can’t view your Tweets, and you can’t view theirs.
But in this case, the blocking raised questions from techies about possible political leanings of the powerful organization that Tan will now lead.
Tan has been outspoken about San Francisco politics, donating $100,000 to the campaign to recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin, according to the political donations-tracking website Open Secrets. Increased political activity from Y Combinator is not unlikely, according to one of Tan’s predecessors. Sam Altman, a former president of Y Combinator, cited Tan’s politics as a good thing for the startup accelerator, tweeting on Monday that “It’s a big deal imo that YC will have a president so active in local politics! I think YC can make a real difference here…”
Twitter had plenty of enthusiastic commentary, but the discussion got a little deeper on the Y Combinator link-sharing site Hacker News, where some techies with ties to the accelerator know Tan.
“I am blocked by Garry despite having zero interactions with him on Twitter (nor ever tweeting anything controversial). I see numerous reports of other people stating the same both in this thread and on twitter,” a Hacker News user posted Monday.
Tan chimed in on that thread and explained that the reason he has blocked so many people is the ugliness of San Francisco politics.
“Twitter has been a tough one — I got involved in local politics which has been a challenge,” Tan posted to Hacker News. “Large accounts typically do have to block a lot to make it usable.” Tan said that Twitter users exposed his personal information and threatened him, and that was why he blocked so many users. “I’m sorry if I got it wrong, and I am happy to unblock if I did get it wrong.”
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Tan confirmed to The Examiner in an email that he posted the comment.
Some on Hacker News wondered how many startup founders Tan has blocked, and if their views are welcome at Y Combinator now.
“I guess everyone Garry has blocked on Twitter will not be applying to YC any time soon :),” a user at Hacker News wrote.
“Many have jumped to the conclusion that you simply block people who disagree with your politics,” another wrote.
Tan declined to comment beyond confirming the Hacker News comment, and Y Combinator did not respond at all to requests for comment.
Tech investor Chris Sacca defended Tan for blocking people on Twitter last November, tweeting “Longtime passionate proponent of the block button. My block list is in the tens of thousands and the result is a much nicer feed.”
Manually blocking tens of thousands of Twitter users would take some time, but apps like Block Party can speed that up considerably. The app allows you to identify a “bad tweet,” and block all accounts who liked or retweeted it with one click. That would allow you to block large groups of people who share a political opinion. You can also upload lists of Twitter users and block them 100 at a time, and allow helpers to block users for you.
Tan has tweeted in the past that he blocks users manually. “I’ll have you know I block people by hand,” Tan tweeted in April.
Nevertheless, some techies in the Hacker News community now believe a computer program is involved, and that the tactic sends a message from the new leader of a powerful organization.
“I don’t particularly care that I triggered his Twitter blocking scripts. But I do take it as a sign that he wants to send a signal to founders looking to raise from his firm that they’d do well to support his political views or stay quiet on social media,” a Hacker News user posted.
For most on Twitter, it was just another meme.
“At this point I only trust people who’ve been blocked by that guy,” a Twitter user tweeted. “Fortunately that’s half the city.”