I created the Global Blacklist API early on when I joined Steem and have run it since with very little downtime.
I have decided to sunset the API for various reasons. You will no longer see blacklist markers on accounts when viewing profiles. This will also affect accounts on the irredeemables list.
The blacklist has always been a source of frustration for many users and myself. I have put a lot of time into maintaining it and 47,397 accounts manually researched and added by me.
Users will soon have the ability to create their own decentralized lists and decide what they want to mute and what they want to blacklist. My original plan was to move the Global Blacklist API to the decentralized lists and maintain multiple mute lists for the community. But I have decided to leave abuse-fighting to others and move on to other things. I'm sure there are plenty of people that would love to step up and do this instead.
At this time, the following blacklists will no longer be available until they come up with their own solution or move to decentralized lists:
Effective immediately, the Global Blacklist API has been taken down, the BuildAWhale blacklist is no more, and irredeemables have been taken down as well.
