Likes on X will be private starting this week

Soon, you're likes will no longer be visible to everyone on X

(Credit: X)

• 🆕 X is rolling out its previously announced changes to how likes work

• 👍 Posts you like on X won’t be visible to the public

• 👀 You’ll still be able to see who liked your posts and the like count for all posts

• 🫣 However, you won’t be able to see the people who have liked someone else’s post

We already knew that X was changing the way ‘likes’ work, but now it’s officially rolling out the changes to everyone on the platform. And perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s split opinion.

A post from X Engineering outlined how the change to likes will work.

This week we’re making Likes private for everyone to better protect your privacy.

• You will still be able to see posts you have liked (but others cannot).

• Like count and other metrics for your own posts will still show up under notifications.

• You will no longer see who liked someone else’s post.

• A post’s author can see who liked its post.

X has justified the decision to make likes private as it believes the current system was “incentivizing the wrong behavior”. According to X engineer Wang Haofei, they noticed that many people felt discouraged from liking posts that might be deemed “edgy” for fear of retaliation from trolls, or to protect their public image.

There’s no doubt that people’s likes or follows have led to negative repercussions in the past, with people delving into a user’s history to see what they’ve been engaging with and then trying to use that against them.

Critics believe hiding likes will mean people won’t be held accountable for liking unsavory posts, but it’ll certainly mean that users won’t have to debate whether they want to express how they feel or risk the wrath of people who don’t agree with their views.

Those who subscribed to X Premium were able to hide their likes from public view, but it seems this perk wasn’t worth paywalling and is now available for everyone. Just make sure the change has rolled out before you go out on a liking spree in the next few days.

Adam Vjestica is The Shortcut’s Senior Editor. Formerly TechRadar’s Gaming Hardware Editor, Adam has also worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Content Marketing Editor, where he helped launch the Nintendo Switch. Follow him on X @ItsMrProducts.