Since tycoon Elon Musk acquired the popular social network formerly known as Twitter, now X, controversy has not stopped surrounding this platform. If it is already a proposal that has always created a lot of controversy regarding its usage policies and certain functions, now even more so.
One of the main objectives that its new owner has set since making the purchase is for X to be profitable. This means that a good part of its changes and new features focus on monetizing the use of the social network and compensating for the purchase you made. Obviously, this is something that is not very well regarded among a good part of the regular users who have had a Twitter account for years.
Now we are going to talk to you about a new and important change that Musk is preparing here and will become effective shortly. Specifically, we are referring to the disappearance of one of the integrated functions most used by the majority. We tell you all this because X is about to start hiding all the likes of the posts published on the platform. This is something that will occur gradually.
Basically, the meaning of all this is that the disappearance of likes could occur in our account at any time. Users may or may not like this withdrawal. However, it doesn’t end here. To all this we have to add that they are going to add a new function that we could call private likes.
Reasons for the disappearance of likes on Twitter
That means that what users like on the social platform will be hidden by default, as it will become an option for Premium subscribers of X. In short, to use Likes on X as before, we will have to pay and become Premium users.
In turn, the owner of X, Elon Musk, shared a post in which he states that it is important to allow people to like posts without being attacked for doing so on the social network.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Important to allow people to like posts without getting attacked for doing so! https://t.co/3O1bG7wIGe
June 13, 2024 • 08:54
134.3K
2.7K
For his part, X’s engineering director, Haofei Wang, tells us that the change we are telling you about with the Likes is intended to protect the public image of users. Many feel self-conscious about liking certain posts because of the criticism they may receive for doing so.
Hence the decision to eliminate said button in user profiles without a Premium account. You will still be able to see who has liked your own posts and the count of all of them, but you will not see who has liked other people’s posts.
It looks like it won’t end there, as late last year, Musk told his engineers that he wanted to get rid of the tweet action buttons entirely. Instead, what he intends is to give greater importance to the views of the publications as such.
It is very possible that when the change is extended to all users and accounts, this disappearance will not be viewed very favorably by the majority. But it is true that this could safeguard the privacy a little more of those who mark certain somewhat controversial posts with the Like button, since from now on it will not be public.
