

Because that is not an escape sequence. Not sure there is any valid escape sequence. If you put any non space character on the line it will show the ticks in the block:
-```
```\
M ```
```♪
``` a
Though looks like you can use more ticks on the opening block and the end will need to match that number:
````
```
```
````







I am surprised it took them so long. It would have been the first thing to do, block new users, stop people takeong over orphaned packages or make the whole AUR read only for a while. Any of those would have disrupted this attack and gave the devs more time to figure out a longer term solution.