X (formerly Twitter) is rolling out a feature to allow all users to hide their likes. The change aims to protect users from criticism over their liked content, while authors of posts will retain the ability to see who liked their posts. The ability to hide the Likes tab on X was previously available only for X Premium subscribers but is now being rolled out to everyone.
X justified the decision to make likes private, citing the incentivization of wrong behavior and negative repercussions for people's likes or follows in the past.
The shift towards private like counts reflects a broader trend in social media towards more personal and less performative online experiences. Critics believe hiding likes will mean less accountability for liking unsavory posts.
Elon Musk, the CEO of X, confirmed the rollout of hidden likes. It is "important to allow people to like posts without getting attacked for doing so," Musk wrote in an X post.
Users will still receive notifications about likes and related metrics, but the like count and other metrics will be visible only under notifications post-update.
The decision to hide all users' likes takes place just over a week after X updated its policy to allow consensual adult pornographic content if properly labeled and not prominently displayed.
Sources: Independent.co.uk, Forbes, Mashable, Read Write, The Verge, Gizmodo, Quartz, indianexpress.com, economictimes.indiatimes.com, benzinga.com, wionews.com, thurrott.com, tweaktown.com, theshortcut.com, news.abplive.com, gsmarena.com, phonearena.com, winbuzzer.com, iphoneincanada.ca, tribune.com.pk, androidheadlines.com, newsbytesapp.com, techpluto.com, and siliconrepublic.com.
This article was written in collaboration with Generative AI news company Alchemiq.
