Soft block
Etymology
A term of platform mechanics that emerged on Twitter in the late 2010s, when users discovered that blocking then unblocking forces the other account to unfollow. "Soft" marks it as the gentler counterpart to an ordinary (hard) block.
verb · /SAWFT blok/
To quietly remove a follower by blocking and then immediately unblocking them, so they simply stop following you without being notified.
What it names
It names a discreet exit from a social tie — a way to sever a connection that avoids the confrontation of a hard block and the awkwardness of a visible removal. It exists because platforms offer no clean "please stop following me" button, so users engineered one.
Example
I didn’t want a whole confrontation, so I just soft-blocked him and he never noticed.
Related idea
A quieter relative of ghosting: ghosting is going silent on someone, while a soft block actively severs the connection without announcing it.