cut both ways
To have both favorable and unfavorable results or implications

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

cut both ways
to have both advantages and disadvantages.
The Internet cuts both ways – it not only opens borders, it draws boundaries between the people who have it and those who do not.

cut both/two ways
to have two different effects at the same time, usually one good and one bad.
Censorship cuts both ways; it prevents people from being corrupted, but it often also prevents them from knowing what is really going on.
(never in continuous tenses)

[TahlilGaran] English Idioms Dictionary ▲

cut both ways
• cut both/two ways
1. to serve both sides of an argument
What the man said cuts both ways and we should carefully think about it.

2. to be capable of having two opposite effects, to produce advantages and disadvantages
My decision to complain to our boss could cut two ways and cause him to be happy or angry with me.

[TahlilGaran] English Idioms Dictionary ▲

cut both ways
v. phr. To have two effects; cause injury to both sides.
People who gossip find it cuts both ways.

[TahlilGaran] English Idioms Dictionary ▲