Elon Musk's X (formerly Twitter) began hiding everyone's liked posts in a move touted to "better protect" users' privacy.
In a platform update on Wednesday, X announced that liking posts will be private to "make your For you timeline better."
Starting today, Likes are private for everyone. Liking more posts will make your For you timeline better. https://t.co/BOCSkXwIWx
— Engineering (@XEng) June 12, 2024
The new platform rules were made effective immediately as users can only see their own likes and not with other accounts.
Post authors can still see which users liked their posts, as well as other post metrics under their notifications. The feature was previously exclusive as an optional setting for Premium accounts.
X engineer Haofei Wang claimed earlier that the latest platform change is due to how "public likes are incentivizing the wrong behavior," particularly with users being harassed for liking "edgy" content.
Yeah, we are making likes private.
— Haofei (@wanghaofei) May 22, 2024
Public likes are incentivizing the wrong behavior. For example, many people feel discouraged from liking content that might be "edgy" in fear of retaliation from trolls, or to protect their public image.
Soon you’ll be able to like without… https://t.co/vPGllc4pB0
Musk has previously been caught and criticized several times for liking posts promoting antisemitism, conspiracy theories, and racism.
Coincidentally, the update also came after X allowed adult content and full nudity on the platform.
Also Read : You Can No Longer Use the Term 'Cisgender' on X
Elon Musk Faces User Backlash Following Changes on X
Like with the other recent changes on the platform, many users have started bashing Musk for making social media relatively worse than when he bought it.
As other users have noted, making all users' "Likes" tab private would only protect people and notable personalities from "being exposed for their hate, bigotry, and problematic takes and behavior."
The only reason why Elon Musk is hiding likes is to protect people from being exposed for their hate, bigotry, and problematic takes and behavior. It’s also why he’d already made it more difficult to mute and block folk on this app.
— Olayemi Olurin (@msolurin) June 12, 2024
This is on top of the platform's ever-growing problems with bot accounts that have started to become more prevalent on many people's timelines due to artificial engagement boosts.
Removing then Twitter's problem with bot accounts was among the reasons Musk claimed for his decision to purchase the social media for $44 billion in 2022.
Related Article : Elon Musk's X is Filled with Bot Accounts and There's Not Much We Can Do
How to Turn 'Likes' Tab Public Again on X?
As of writing, there are no viable options to switch back the "Likes" tab to public, at least not now.
Following the recent change on the platform, many X users have already expressed desires to create extensions and platform mods that would make the "Likes" tab visible to the public again.
Similar efforts have already been made with YouTube removing the Dislike count and Instagram also making likes, aside from followed accounts, private.
