Because of X exhibiting what its customers “like” on its platform, politicians and public personalities have been caught taking a look at salacious and unsavory tweets up to now. Now, the platform previously often known as Twitter is making likes largely non-public, and in line with firm chief Elon Musk, it is an necessary change so that individuals can “like posts with out getting attacked for doing so.” The corporate initially launched the power to cover the likes tab as a perk for X Premium subscribers final yr. “[K]eep spicy likes non-public,” X mentioned when it introduced the brand new function.
This week we’re making Likes non-public for everybody to higher defend your privateness.
– You’ll nonetheless have the ability to see posts you may have appreciated (however others can not).
– Like rely and different metrics in your personal posts will nonetheless present up below notifications.
– You’ll now not see who…
— Engineering (@XEng) June 11, 2024
In a brand new tweet, X’s Engineering account has revealed that the social community is making likes non-public for everybody this week. Customers will now not have the ability to see who appreciated another person’s publish, which implies likes on the platform will now not trigger PR crises for public figures who like sexual, hateful and different unpalatable posts typically. They’ll nonetheless see who appreciated their tweets, nevertheless, together with their like rely and different metrics for their very own posts.
This rollout kills one motive for getting a premium subscription, although. The corporate’s promoting income took a nosedive final yr, and it launched two new tiers for its subscription service to assist resolve a few of its monetary woes. The Premium+ tier prices customers $16 monthly and removes adverts from their timelines, whereas the most affordable tier prices customers $3 a month and does not include the web site’s blue checkmark.