Elon Musk is introducing a significant change to X (formerly Twitter) by hiding users’ liked tweets from public view, aiming to enhance user privacy and prevent potential shaming. The change, set to roll out this week, will remove the “Likes” tab from profiles, a feature often used to gauge public sentiment and celebrity preferences.
According to X’s engineering team, users will still be able to see their own liked posts, but others will not. This adjustment addresses concerns about public scrutiny and the fear of retaliation for liking controversial content. “Public likes are incentivizing the wrong behavior,” explained X engineer Haofei Wang, noting that users often avoid liking certain posts to protect their image.
Musk reiterated this viewpoint, tweeting, “Important to allow people to like posts without getting attacked for doing so!” The new policy aims to allow users more freedom in expressing their preferences without fear of backlash.
While the “Likes” tab will disappear, the like counts on tweets will remain visible, though only the tweet’s author can see who liked their posts. X Premium subscribers already have the option to hide their likes tab. Musk has also hinted at further interface changes that could hide retweet and like buttons to improve readability.
