X Hides Likes: ‘Public Likes Are Incentivizing the Wrong Behavior’
By Movieguide® Contributor
X is now hiding users’ liked posts from others on the platform.
“Important change: your likes are now private,” the platform’s CEO, Elon Musk, tweeted.
X’s engineering department elaborated on the change in a post, writing, “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),” they listed. “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.”
Haofei Wang, X’s director of engineering, explained the thinking behind making likes private, saying, “Public likes are incentivizing the wrong behavior.”
“For example, many people feel discouraged from liking content that might be ‘edgy’ in fear of retaliation from trolls, or to protect their public image,” Wang said. “Soon you’ll be able to like without worrying who might see it.”
This isn’t the only change X has recently announced. Movieguide® previously reported:
X, formerly known as Twitter, has just announced it will allow sexual content to be distributed by users.
“You may share consensually produced and distributed adult nudity or sexual behavior, provided it’s properly labeled and not prominently displayed,” a new update from X reads.
The platform continued, “We believe that users should be able to create, distribute, and consume material related to sexual themes as long as it is consensually produced and distributed. Sexual expression, whether visual or written, can be a legitimate form of artistic expression. We believe in the autonomy of adults to engage with and create content that reflects their own beliefs, desires, and experiences, including those related to sexuality. We balance this freedom by restricting exposure to Adult Content for children or adult users who choose not to see it.”
The update said X would “prohibit content promoting exploitation, nonconsent, objectification, sexualization or harm to minors, and obscene behaviors” and does “not allow sharing Adult Content in highly visible places such as profile photos or banners.”
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