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

[mrat93]

The problem is that “appalling” is in the eye of the beholder. Who decides what is and what is not “appalling?” Unfortunately, there are people out there who think that we have the right to not be offended, which we don’t in any “free” society.

Things permitted/tolerated/encouraged-by-algorithm regularly on twitter:

• Targeted harassment of gay/trans people including deadnaming and f-slurs
• (banned on paper, but seemingly tolerated) porn bots everywhere
• Fake news and repeated, obvious, bad-faith behavior from “verified” accounts (which used to mean something), with financial incentives for engagement, and seeming-zero repercussions for repeated, obviously-BS posts
  • Community Notes is garbage. It was better to ban/restrict people posting conspiratorial nonsense repeatedly.
    • Example:
      • Immediately after a mass shooting, a User baselessly claimed that the shooter was yelling “justice for Trayvon [Martin]”. This post got thousands of likes, RTs, and other people posting the same exact thing
      • Post wasn’t removed or Community Noted. User later deleted it after defending his actions.
      • User is still active, posting nazi-esque content under a changed username
      • Shooter wore right-wing, white supremacist insignia and tattoos

Things absolutely not allowed:

• (on paper and in practice) Calling somebody “cis”

You: *fake British accent*: mmmmmmm-yes. But what does “appalling” mean? There is so much nuance in this situation that, unfortunately, some weak-minded people simply cannot understand.

Call me crazy, but I think that fawning over Hitler and baselessly-attributing a “reverse racism” ideology to a mass shooting should be equally as un-allowed as calling somebody “cis”. Perhaps even moreso!

 

[nfl46]

This is probably for the best.

 

[blazerunner]

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

Life was better before smartphones. Once the iPhone got into as many hands as the iPod did, every insufferable idiot on social media thought their voice online was the law.

 

[JungleNYC]

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.

"Everyone is moving to alternative socials like Mastodon or Threads" … do you have any evidence for that statement? Based on the data I've seen it's the opposite.

 

[JungleNYC]

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?

X is the public square. It's where public opinion is formed. It's where the sausage is made.

 

[barkomatic]

The weirdest use of the ‘likes’ police was a sports team who tweeted a statement on an issue & the players who didn’t ‘like’ it got lambasted. These players never made any statement one way or another but got heat for not clicking ‘like’. Crazy.

I’ve heard similar stories about employees getting basically scolded at work for not ‘liking’ posts their employer made.

In the same spirit, a friend of mine attempted to shame me at dinner because I hadn't posted to Facebook during a period where certain political events were in the news -- and being debated in a toxic way that only social media can host.

He believed that all his friends needed to take a side and make that side public on social media. I told him that I am literally right in front of him, surrounded by our friends and that he is welcome to discuss the issue now with me. He totally shut down.

It's not that I don't think people shouldn't be responsible for abhorrent statements or behavior, but I don't think social media is a healthy way to discuss anything beyond what you had for dinner.

To answer the question though, I think hiding likes is fine but mostly irrelevant to me.

 

[mrat93]

X is the public square. It's where public opinion is formed. It's where the sausage is made.

*crowd of NPCs repeating the exact same statement meme*

 

[truthsteve]

It's not me you should be replying to about this lol

You reply to me but you don't want me to reply to you? Ok

 

[jarman92]

"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.

Pretty sure the only thing people are afraid to "like" on Twitter is porn 😂

 

[truthsteve]

I didn't say you said it was new

then why point out something we both know? lol

moving on.

 

[truthsteve]

There is no such thing as "cancel culture."

hard disagree

 

[PowerButton]

Thank you! Cancel Culture doesn't actually exist, it's just the sum of a mass of people calling someone out for liking some racist BS or liking someone's post about being Anti-LGBTQ+

🤔 Essentially, "Cancel Culture" is the dogma that anyone who disagrees with anything someone says, does, likes, laughs, or smiles at is evil and to be hated.

This culture has grown to be so divisive that healthy conversations don’t exist. People are starting to live in echo chambers where only their own thoughts are praised, and everyone else is vilified.

I have friends, neighbors, and acquaintances who disagree with many of my values and opinions. Some don’t believe in being pro-choice, while others do. Some don’t agree with the LGBTQIA2S+ lifestyle, while others do. I’ll still talk to them, have a wine or beer, and hang out with them. Mostly, I try not to argue or talk behind their backs. The people who hate and vilify others epitomize what Cancel Culture is.

 

[gank41]

Just saw this on Twit- I mean, on X and thought it was pretty funny, all things considered...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1793606334178345163

 

[hotpotato123]

There is no such thing as "cancel culture."

That's like Putin saying there is freedom of speech in Russia. You know, in Russia, that the majority of people follow their main news and don't believe the news from outside Russia?

It's the same outside Russia. Most people follow the Mainstream media. They say the Media lies, and yet those same people's views are in lock-step with the Media that they say lies. Go figure.

 

[SkweeBop]

X: home of the weakest wannabe edgelords I've ever seen.

 

[dork]

This is smart. Twitter's leverage is in user data collection. Users eschew a lot of interaction that they would otherwise engage in, to avoid public disclosure of the interaction - that's just a fact. If these interactions are no longer public, Twitter will get the benefit of many more data points for its algorithm, and its targeted ads. On the other hand, Twitter has morphed into a festering cesspool of racists, trolls, and bots, and nothing about this will do anything to fix that.

 

[nt5672]

Twitter is a $%&& cesspit. I only started using Twitter or or slightly before February 24, 2022, and only to keep in contact with some people in Ukraine/to keep on top of the news about the war. When the war is over, I’m off Twitter.

Tom

Unlike the world around everyone, which is also a cesspit. How do you handle that? I think handling the cesspit of twitter is a lot easier.

 

[BeeeRick]

It'd be nice if they could put all the time and energy into removing the porn bots that follow and and like posts, and the random spam that is running rampant. But sure, hiding the likes is important. /s

 

[nt5672]

Every Twitter post on here (why does a Mac page so closely report on X?) says this, but I have yet to see this mass exodus that everyone claims has happened multiple times

I agree, Twitter ranks in the top 5 for least censorship, that scares a lot of people that cannot handle the truth.

 

[hotpotato123]

... I read a lot about politics I would get average tweets from people with similar politics. Now it's 99% right wing rage bait bs that I have zero interest in seeing. Lot's of people I have never even heard of.

I'm opposite to you - I follow right and left (these days, with polarised society, it includes far right and far left). There's virtually no correlation between what left and right say. It's like different planets.

It's useful, rather than being a partisan tribesman ... instead, to seek truth, and sift the evidence and data, to see where truth and facts are being spoken. And you'll only be able to do that if you hear and listen to both sides.

If you just swallow the stuff coming from your favorite tribe, then you are no different to masses of people that make up the crowd.

If you seek the Truth, you'll find it.

 

[chairokun]

It is a bad thing. If someone makes a statement that I like and I don't find controversial, but some HAMAS loving Columbia infant finds abhorrent, why should they come after me because their feelings got hurt? The Overton Window of what is "acceptable" to certain people has been pushed so far out of the mainstream that benign comments such as liking a post that let's say, contained the phrase "illegal alien", is now viewed like it's some sort of hate crime.

Spreading criminality or trying to foment acts of violence is an entirely different thing, but let's stop venturing into thoughtcrime territory. We need to get back to just ignoring bad people or bad ideas, things we don't like. Not everything has to be a war. Social media is cancer.

I mean you literally are doing the things that made our platforms tiring now.
An intentional avoidance of context and flat singular debate me bro response following that methodology.

When you ignore context or show an inability to communicate adequately with another individual I need to the tools to determine what to do with you.

Seeing what an individual liked allowed valuable context of them so you could efficiently use that knowledge for judging how to filter appropriately.

Past tools that could mass block users based off their likes were great. I used for very repugnant individuals or "not on my vibe content" and it was great in creating a non toxic environment for myself.

A problem with continually removing the abilities for you "the individual" to dictate your action puts more power in the corporation to do what suites them, not you.

This is another step by them in taking efficient options of control away from you, to do what makes them MORE profit.
Financially or more importantly "dictating the direction of mind share"

diegogaja​

There is no such thing as "cancel culture." It's called repercussions. If someone says something people don't like, others will call them out—plain and simple. People who screen iT's CaNcEl CuLtUrE!!! just want to be able to say things without repercussions or opposition. The phrase "cancel culture" is just COP (Conservative Outrage Pr0n).

I agree. People with capital decrying being cancelled or fearing cancellation are doing fine.

With or without social media there has always been a mutually beneficial platform for them to use obscure language to cry and fantasies a new reality to justify continuation without repercussions.

This removal or change to the platform seems more inline with promoting this want of a cooperation.

 

[GeoStructural]

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".

So, you are "they".

 

[incidentallycheckout]

To be fair, I've never once used Twitter nor known anyone that has at any point.

I find this rather hard to believe unless you know nobody.

 

[Rogifan]

X is the public square. It's where public opinion is formed. It's where the sausage is made.

How can it be the public square when the vast majority of the public doesn’t use it?

 

[jblank]

I mean you literally are doing the things that made our platforms tiring now.
An intentional avoidance of context and flat singular debate me bro response following that methodology.

When you ignore context or show an inability to communicate adequately with another individual I need to the tools to determine what to do with you.

Seeing what an individual liked allowed valuable context of them so you could efficiently use that knowledge for judging how to filter appropriately.

Past tools that could mass block users based off their likes were great. I used for very repugnant individuals or "not on my vibe content" and it was great in creating a non toxic environment for myself.

A problem with continually removing the abilities for you "the individual" to dictate your action puts more power in the corporation to do what suites them, not you.

This is another step by them in taking efficient options of control away from you, to do what makes them MORE profit.
Financially or more importantly "dictating the direction of mind share"


I agree. People with capital decrying being cancelled or fearing cancellation are doing fine.

With or without social media there has always been a mutually beneficial platform for them to use obscure language to cry and fantasies a new reality to justify continuation without repercussions.

This removal or change to the platform seems more inline with promoting this want of a cooperation.

I have to disagree with that. I might like a part of a comment, maybe they made a particularly prescient point, but the fact I liked something, shouldn't be used against me, unless the post is about something illegal or violent. When people make posts about supporting what ultimately would be a genocide against the Jewish people, that tells me much more about them. I just happen to believe that people should be allowed to say whatever they want, as long as it's not illegal. Usually the firebomb throwers go away if you ignore them and don't engage with them. People on Twitter have attempted on a couple of occasions to use "likes" against me, rather than stay on the topic of the discussion. I find that a weak-minded exercise.