X is changing the way 'likes' work by making them private

Another change to X is on the way, which will hide your likes from the public

(Credit: X)

• 👋 Soon, posts you like on X won’t be visible to the public

• 👍 You will still be able to see who liked your posts and the like count for all posts, replies, etc.

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

• 😶‍🌫️ You also won’t be able to see other users “Liked” tab on their profile

X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, is introducing another change that is bound to divide users.

Soon, people will no longer be able to see the posts you’ve liked. This doesn’t mean that likes are disappearing, as they’ll still be shown on all posts and replies. It just means that if you like a post, your action won’t be shared publicly with other users.

The change has been made as X believes that public likes are “incentivizing the wrong behavior”. According to X engineer Wang Haofei, many people feel discouraged from liking posts that might be deemed “edgy” in fear of retaliation from trolls, or to protect their public image.

You may agree with someone’s opinion, for example, but avoid liking a post in case it negatively impacts you if your followers don’t necessarily share the same point of view.

A similar change was made when X Premium users could hide their “Liked” tab from other users, but this will now seemingly roll out to everyone. You’ll still get notifications when people like your posts but don’t expect to see who likes what in the future.

Some users have said that the new change should be an opt-in or out feature, while others seem to be taking the news that likes are disappearing altogether, which isn’t the case.

Being able to like more posts without judgment should also improve a user’s ‘For Your’ page, but the main objective here is to allow people to like what they want without fear of repercussions.

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.