X Confirms Plan to Make 'Likes' Private, Remove Likes Tab From Profiles

[MacRumors]

Social media platform X (formerly Twitter) will soon stop showing public "likes" on users' profile pages, the company has said. The plan was confirmed on Wedndesday by X engineers, after MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris uncovered a flag in X's iOS app revealing the coming change.

Perris found that turning off the flag completely removes the "Likes" tab from all user profiles. His discovery was shared on X, which was then reposted and subsequently confirmed by X engineers.

"Yeah, we are making likes private," responded X's director of engineering Haofei Wang. "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 worrying who might see it," Wang continued. "Also a reminder that the more posts you like, the better your For you algorithm will become," he added.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1793096366132195529

To clear up some confusion among users, X senior software engineer Enrique Barragan also responded with a post, saying that users will still be able to see who liked their posts, as well as the like count for all posts, replies, and so on. The change involves hiding which posts other people liked, which means removing the Liked tab on public profiles.

X Premium subscribers have been able to optionally hide the Likes tab on their profile, but the platform is set to take it away wholesale. It's not clear when the change will be rolled out, but once it does, everyone on X, including owner Musk – who has received blowback in the past for liking controversial posts – will be able to like whatever they want without it being made public.

Article Link: X Confirms Plan to Make 'Likes' Private, Remove Likes Tab From Profiles

 

[truthsteve]

I mean cancel culture did this. No one to blame but them.

 

[David1964]

Hopefully this will stop the endless stream of porn bots from liking my posts.

 

[wanha]

I mean cancel culture did this. No one to blame but them.

Yeah but who are "they"?

 

[ItsASpider]

Now you can like all your racist conspiracies freely.

 

[SoldOnApple]

Probably a good idea. The only time I ever read about specific people liking something it's always about drama, as if liking something is a weapon the liker can use or their enemies can use against them.

 

[truthsteve]

Yeah but who are "they"?

people who cancel others based on their X activity.

 

[ginkobiloba]

I mean cancel culture did this. No one to blame but them.

I would say it's the entire social network business that is to blame. It encourages and amplifies the worst aspects of humans, allows them to act on them, in the most cowardly manner usually. Social networks don't make people evil, various levels of evil are already dormant deep within all of us, but the social network business wakes that serpent that should have remained asleep. And profits from it of course while washing their hands of any responsibility.

 

[ItsASpider]

people who cancel others based on their X activity.

You mean people who call out other people for liking appalling content? Pasting a "scary" word like "cancel culture" on people holding other people accountable is always such a senseless discourse... You're just doing the exact same thing as people calling everything they don't like "woke".

 

[wanha]

people who cancel others based on their X activity.

I'll just point out that cancel culture isn't anything new... people have been cancelling each other since the dawn of time over every possible reason (being gay, suspected of being a witch, having the wrong skin color or last name, etc)

What I'm suggesting is that it isn't "them", it's "us"

 

[iZac]

Fear of retaliation from social engagement…

Now I understand why people don’t ’like’ my terrible jokes on Macrumours

 

[FreakyT]

Probably a good idea. The only time I ever read about specific people liking something it's always about drama, as if liking something is a weapon the liker can use or their enemies can use against them.

Agreed, likes being public at all seems like a strange user experience decision; in what scenario would a user want their likes to be surfaced on their profile?

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Even less accountability on the cesspool that is “X”. Unless you moderate properly, people should be exposed especially for their extremism. Nothing more than a white robe & hood for internet.

 

[NEPOBABY]

people who cancel others based on their X activity.

I cancelled Formerly Twitter based on Formerly Twitter's activity.

 

[alchemistmuffin]

X Premium subscribers have been able to optionally hide the Likes tab on their profile, but the platform is set to take it away wholesale. It's not clear when the change will be rolled out, but once it does, everyone on X, including owner Musk – who has received blowback in the past for liking controversial posts – will be able to like whatever they want without it being made public.

And this is why everyone is moving to alternative socials like Mastodon or Threads, or even that social site inspired by frog meme who is run by a right wing religious cult (literally, that site is run by a cult essentially): no more accountability by hiding what users liked, and hiding likes is technically censorship.

I don’t care about cancel culture. If I “liked” something and I get blowback on it, let me hear it. Everyone has right to opinion that they can share publicly. (What I hate though is the theory of cancel culture or opinions are supposed to be consequence free. Shut the $&!? Up about that. Free speech doesn’t mean free of consequences. And those consequences, also technically considered free speech)

Also the group that hurts the most on this: brands (or whatever there is left of brands still on site run by a space dictator) who also depends on likes to get engagement. They are going to jump ship most likely.

 

[infinitejest]

If that doesn't save the company, what will?

 

[maasj]

Agreed, likes being public at all seems like a strange user experience decision; in what scenario would a user want their likes to be surfaced on their profile?

<Venmo has entered the chat>

 

[stinksroundhere]

Hopefully this will stop the endless stream of porn bots from liking my posts.

It's going to be worse. The whole web will be flooded with LLM powered bots within a year and all these bots will try to drown out real voices. They will harass anyone who doesn't play along with the ambitions of the rich, powerful and corrupt. You'll be wondering how can people be so sheepish, but they won't be people cursing you.

All the harmful bot activity we have seen in the last decade was just a warm up test. They want to push you off forums, away from organic search results, and push you off reading articles and comments made by real people. They want you to read generative content only.

They didn't make things like ChatGPT to empower you. It's to empower themselves.

 

[RemedyRabbit]

people who cancel others based on their X activity.

Of course the flip side of this is people getting upset when others find their views repugnant. Social media is full of overly emotional people with an inflated sense of self importance and entitlement.

 

[RemedyRabbit]

Genuinely baffled as to why twitter is ascribed so much weight in public discourse. A tiny proportion of everyday folk actually post on there. Why does anyone care?

 

[tomtad]

Makes sense, I've never understood why Likes were public in the first place. If you want to share something with others you can Retweet (or repost or whatever it's called now).

This will however make Bookmarks redundant though I would have thought

 

[MJaP]

Oooooo, obviously Elon wants to like some truly scary **** without everyone knowing about it. So is Macrumors going to follow suit, because what if I like a post that's pro-Windows, will "they" come for me?!!

 

[UltimaKilo]

A minor, but welcome move. It will help combat bots, keep privacy and help lurkers!

 

[Godspeed8230]

Genuinely baffled as to why twitter is ascribed so much weight in public discourse. A tiny proportion of everyday folk actually post on there. Why does anyone care?

Why are the Kardashians so rich and famous?

I avoid using Social Media as much as possible, social media algorithms are designed to be toxic and addictive.
In the not so distant future people will compare it to cigarettes or liquor and we will shake our heads as why we made it so freely available for young children.

 

[Seanm87]

To be honest I never saw the point of “likes”. I think its something Facebook started and every social media copied but it doesn;t seem to serve any purpose.