silly script to block X and meant to be used with a cron to limit usage

x_control.sh

#!/bin/bash

# The domains we want to block
DOMAINS="x.com www.x.com twitter.com www.twitter.com"
# Where we point them (Localhost)
REDIRECT="127.0.0.1"
# The hosts file path
HOSTS="/etc/hosts"
# A unique comment to identify our entry
MARKER="# X_BLOCK_CONTROL"

# Function to block X
block_x() {
    # Check if we've already added it to prevent duplicates
    if grep -q "$MARKER" "$HOSTS"; then
        echo "X.com is already blocked."
    else
        echo "Blocking X.com..."
        echo -e "$REDIRECT $DOMAINS $MARKER" >> "$HOSTS"
        flush_dns
    fi
}

# Function to unblock X
unblock_x() {
    echo "Unblocking X.com..."
    # Remove any line containing the marker
    if [[ "$OSTYPE" == "darwin"* ]]; then
        # macOS version of sed
        sed -i '' "/$MARKER/d" "$HOSTS"
    else
        # Linux version of sed
        sed -i "/$MARKER/d" "$HOSTS"
    fi
    flush_dns
}

# Function to flush DNS cache so changes take effect immediately
flush_dns() {
    echo "Flushing DNS cache..."
    if [[ "$OSTYPE" == "darwin"* ]]; then
        sudo dscacheutil -flushcache && sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
    else
        # Many Linux distros use systemd-resolved
        if command -v systemd-resolve &> /dev/null; then
            sudo systemd-resolve --flush-caches
        elif command -v service &> /dev/null; then
            # Try generic restart of dns service
            sudo service dns-clean restart &> /dev/null
        fi
    fi
}

# Main logic
case "$1" in
    block)
        block_x
        ;;
    unblock)
        unblock_x
        ;;
    *)
        echo "Usage: $0 {block|unblock}"
        exit 1
        ;;
esac

This can be used by

sudo ./x_control.sh block   # Try going to x.com now. It should fail.
sudo ./x_control.sh unblock # It should work again.

I'm personally using it with a cron job that will only unlock it between 6 and 7 pm daily

sudo crontab -e

# Unblock X.com at 6:00 PM daily
0 18 * * * /path/to/your/x_control.sh unblock

# Block X.com at 7:00 PM daily
0 19 * * * /path/to/your/x_control.sh block