Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, via its owner Elon Musk, has confirmed that it will automatically be hiding its users’ likes, saying it’s “important to allow people to like posts without getting attacked for doing so!” This means whatever users like on the platform will be hidden by default, and it is already currently available for X Premium users.
This feature was announced by X’s engineering team on June 12. Elon Musk also reposted a tweet with a screenshot of the news. After this feature is implemented, the Likes tab on other users’ profiles will not be visible.
The Likes tab, however from your profile, will still be visible to you and you will be able to see the number of likes on your feed. The total Likes count will also appear under notifications, you won’t be able to see who liked someone else’s post.
X believes that this change will grant its users greater freedom to interact with a wider variety of posts on the platform. Last month, X engineer Haofei Wang elaborated on this matter and stated that "Public likes are encouraging undesirable behavior." He also added, “Many people feel discouraged from liking content that might be ‘edgy’ in fear of retaliation from trolls, or to protect their public image”.
However, since this announcement, many users have criticized this move, as Likes have been a big part of the social media platform and allow people to share their opinions or agree with a view without resharing or commenting on any post.
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