X, formerly Twitter, is all set to launch its ‘private likes’ feature as soon as this week, the microblogging site’s engineering team announced on June 12. “This week we’re making Likes private for everyone to better protect your privacy,” the engineering team posted on the platform.
The team also explained how ‘private likes’ will work on X
– 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 posts.
Confirming the new feature, X owner Elon Musk said it’s important to allow people to like posts without getting attacked for doing so!
The director of engineering at X Haofei Wang had, in a post on the platform on May 21, said that X would be making the switch and asserted, “Public likes are incentivising the wrong behaviour … many people feel discouraged from liking content that might be ‘edgy’ in fear of retaliation from trolls, or to protect their public image.”
Also Read: Elon Musk warns he will ban Apple devices if OpenAI is integrated at OS level
It must also be noted that the private likes feature already exists for X premium users. In August 2023, Musk had allowed paid users to hide their likes as an incentive, and all other users still had a public facing “likes” page where people could go to see all posts they had liked.
The team also explained how ‘private likes’ will work on X
– 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 posts.
Confirming the new feature, X owner Elon Musk said it’s important to allow people to like posts without getting attacked for doing so!
Important to allow people to like posts without getting attacked for doing so! https://t.co/3O1bG7wIGe
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 11, 2024
The director of engineering at X Haofei Wang had, in a post on the platform on May 21, said that X would be making the switch and asserted, “Public likes are incentivising the wrong behaviour … many people feel discouraged from liking content that might be ‘edgy’ in fear of retaliation from trolls, or to protect their public image.”
Also Read: Elon Musk warns he will ban Apple devices if OpenAI is integrated at OS level
It must also be noted that the private likes feature already exists for X premium users. In August 2023, Musk had allowed paid users to hide their likes as an incentive, and all other users still had a public facing “likes” page where people could go to see all posts they had liked.
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