Updated: 17.17

THEY MAY BE KNOWN as some of the most prolific, and occasionally the most insightful, Twitter users among Ireland’s political elite – but now the Green Party’s Twitter kingpins, Paul Gogarty and Dan Boyle, have begun blocking users who “tweet abuse at us” or their party.

It yesterday emerged that Gogarty – whose biography on the microblogging site reads, ‘Promise I won’t tweet anything controversial…’ and who boasts 1,786 – had blocked over a dozen users including broadcasters, economists and political commentators deemed to be “time wasters”.

His Seanad colleague, party chairman Dan Boyle who has over 7,700 followers, had also blocked a number of users. though it is believed his blocking affected a smaller number.

Blocking a user means that that the blocked user cannot view any updates they post – irrespective of whether their profile is ordinarily ‘public’ or ‘private’.

It also means that the account holder – in this case the Green politicians – will not be shown any messages from a blocked user, irrespective of whether or not they are directed toward them.

Unsurprisingly, the move has not gone down well with some of the users at the receiving end of the blockings.