Elon Musk Confirms X Will Hide Likes on Social Platform

Elon Musk has announced that the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, now referred to as X, will begin automatically hiding users’ likes. Musk emphasized the importance of allowing people to like posts without fear of criticism, stating, “It’s important to allow people to like posts without getting attacked for doing so!”

This change was confirmed by Musk in a post on X after reports from The Verge suggested that the site would be “rolling out private likes as soon as today.” Haofei Wang, X’s director of engineering, had previously announced on May 21st that X would be implementing this change, noting that public likes often incentivize negative behavior. Wang stated, “Public likes are incentivizing the wrong behavior … many people feel discouraged from liking content that might be ‘edgy’ in fear of retaliation from trolls, or to protect their public image.”

Enrique Barragan, a Senior Software Engineer at X, further explained in late May that users will still be able to see who liked their posts and the like counts, but they will no longer be able to see who liked another user’s post or view other users’ liked tabs.

This update follows Musk’s previous decision last August to allow paid users to hide their likes as an incentive. Before this change, all users had a public-facing “likes” page where others could view all posts they had liked.

Since purchasing X in October 2022 for $44 billion, Musk has implemented several changes to the platform. These include removing and then reinstating headlines from news articles posted on the platform to encourage journalists to post their content directly on X. Musk also changed the platform’s name from Twitter to X, envisioning it as the “everything app.” Other changes included removing the ability to block other users and introducing a premium plan that offers more customization options.

After acquiring the platform, Musk faced issues with advertisers leaving in large numbers, leading to a significant reduction in revenue. This was reportedly due to concerns over “brand safety issues, confusing policies, and broken technology,” according to Insider Intelligence.

Musk, with an estimated net worth of $205.8 billion, is currently the wealthiest person in the world.

In a related development, X recently updated its policy to allow pornography on the platform. The update allows consensually produced adult pornographic content as long as it is “properly labeled and not prominently displayed.” Previously, Twitter had allowed porn, and in 2022, Reuters reported that adult content made up about 13% of Twitter’s content.