Elon Musk has decided to remove public likes, a move that elicited mixed reactions from its users.
Haofei Wang, X’s Director of Engineering, confirmed the upcoming change, stating, “Yes, we are making likes private.”
Once public likes are removed, users will not be able to see which posts others have liked on their profiles.
This change was first brought to light by Aaron Perris, a MacRumors researcher, who discovered a new feature in the X app for iOS that disables the likes tab on users’ profiles. Wang explained, “Public likes are incentivising wrong behaviour. Many people feel discouraged from liking content that might be considered ‘edgy’ due to fear of retaliation from trolls or to protect their public image.”
Wang clarified that making likes private will allow users to interact more freely and improve the For You algorithm’s recommendations for a user. However, the announcement left many questions unanswered.
Enrique Barragan, X’s Senior Software Engineer, said that users will still see who liked their posts. The number of likes on posts and replies will also be visible to users, he said.
The main change is that users won’t be able to see who liked others’ posts. Also, there will not be a tab showcasing all the posts a user has liked.
This change, unlike many of Musk’s previous announcements, seems ready to be implemented. X has already allowed Premium subscribers to hide their likes, but this update will remove the option for everyone.
The goal is to protect users from potential backlash for liking controversial content, Wang added.
