Elon Musk’s X is preparing to make likes private on the social network, a change that could potentially confuse users about the difference between something they favorited and something they bookmarked. According to new posts from company employees, the decision to hide likes is intended to encourage engagement, allowing people to favorite content that seems “edgy” and to protect their public image.
It’s not clear that this is the best solution to the problems X is trying to solve, such as more signal to its algorithm so it can better personalize its content based on your interests.
The change seems somewhat unnecessary, given that X, the company formerly known as Twitter, already had a private way to save posts on the platform: favorites. Although X’s bookmarks are intended to collect posts you might want to refer to or threads you might want to read later, they are also a more private alternative to “Liking.”
What adds to the confusion is the fact that users will be able to see who liked their posts as well as the number of likes for all their posts and replies. In other words, the private like is only semi-private: it is known to the poster, who could theoretically expose someone’s likes if they wanted. If not a completely private system.
Instead, they can continue to use X’s bookmarks or even external link saving tools to save posts they like and don’t want to risk exposing.
According to posts from X employees, users will no longer be able to see likes associated with other people’s posts or browse someone’s likes through a tab on their profile. This could help eliminate the monitoring that others do, but it also removes a useful discovery feature.
If you’ve just joined X, for example, you can browse the likes of other people you follow to get ideas about other people they might find interesting and engaging. Or, if you’re exploring someone else’s profile to determine if you want to follow them, you can use their likes to get an idea of the type of content they typically enjoy.
The real problem with likes is that the creation of the feature changed the meaning of what was once a bookmarking feature. Before switching from a star to a heart icon, as was the fashion at the time, the feature was more of a “favorite” than a signal of support. Users could theoretically favorite anything, as it didn’t suggest that they actually liked or agreed with the content.
Rather, it could be something they were simply documenting – a politician’s statement that you strongly disagreed with but wanted to remember; an article that deserved further research; the publications that you collected to later build a collection in Moments (RIP); the most upsetting or ridiculous posts from a billionaire, and much more. No one could reasonably accuse you of “liking” content because you didn’t click on a heart icon, which would give you plausible deniability.
When Twitter moved from stars to hearts, users were outraged. They understood that hearts had a completely different meaning, which impacted how they would use the social network.
wrote TechCrunch at the time, “the ‘Like’ limits what it allows a user to express,” while the Favorites feature could mean all sorts of things, like a “thank you, a handshake, a tip of the hat, or even a Robert De Niro looking down. TechCrunch said then that moving from stars to hearts wouldn’t solve Twitter’s broader problems with growing its user base and creating more engagement, and it largely doesn’t. case. The company has had to find an exit quarter after quarter of stagnant growth.
Due to backlash over this change, Twitter later launched Bookmarks to provide a way to save something private, including posts you don’t necessarily agree with, as well as posts you previously disliked. I intend to reference again.
Now that X is moving the functionality around “like” again, many users are registering their disappointment. On Others have warned that privatizing likes could lead to manipulation, as creators employ armies of bots to boost their content and help them generate revenue.
There is also another solution, alluded to by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Even though we don’t agree with a lot of what Dorsey has to say these days – that Nostr, for example, is the future of social or that Bluesky is some kind of censorship platform – on the debate ” I like against the stars,” he’s onto something.
Dorsey wrote in an article on X: “’like’/❤️ was originally a ⭐️. we should never have moved away from that.
His post has more than 700 likes and many responses agreeing with this sentiment.
If what X is looking for is not to add more privacy around user engagement features, but rather more signals for its algorithm, it doesn’t need to hide likes. A simple change from the heart icon to a star perhaps! – would constitute a much less radical change while still achieving the same objective.