- X (formerly Twitter) will be removing the publicly visible Likes tab on other user profiles.
- The change is made to encourage users to like whatever content they want on the platform without the fear of public scrutiny.
- The likes count on posts will still be visible, but you will not be able to tell who liked the posts now.
It is no surprise that X (formerly Twitter) is home to all sorts of different content, including things that can be quite edgy and inappropriate. Sometimes you may find them funny and like them even though you don’t mean anything wrong. However, some users have been afraid to like such posts as their likes history is visible to everyone. But this will change soon, as X is getting rid of the public Likes tab entirely.
X engineer Haofei confirmed the news in his X post. He stated “People feel discouraged from liking content that might be “edgy” in fear of retaliation from trolls, or to protect their public image”. Hiding the Likes tab will encourage more users to like the things they enjoy on the platform. Haofei also mentioned, “the more posts you like, the better your For you algorithm will become”.
As of now, you can visit anyone’s profile and see the history of all the posts that they have liked. This makes people nervous about what posts they click on, especially public figures with a large following. This will be a positive step toward protecting user privacy on the platform.
Just so to make it clear, the likes count will still be visible for posts on your timeline. You can check who liked your posts, only the Likes tabs on others’ X profiles will not be visible going forward. Moreover, if someone you follow has liked something, that post will be suggested to you, but you just won’t know that they liked it.
Among all the changes that the platform has introduced as of late, this one seems quite sound to me. This change will make people more comfortable to enjoy posts that they find interesting or humorous. Without the fear of getting judged or being called out by X detectives. But what are your thoughts about this change? Do you think that it is a move in the right direction, or it will encourage the wrong kind of content? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.
