Elon Musk’s X starts hiding likes for users

New Delhi:

Elon Musk on Wednesday confirmed the launch of a new feature that will hide all likes by default for X users.

X is rolling out “private likes” that will likely appear on users’ timelines starting Wednesday.

This means that users’ likes on the platform will be hidden by default and they “will be able to enjoy content without worrying about who might see it.”

Musk said it is “important to allow people to like posts without being attacked for doing so.”

Last month, Haofei Wang, director of engineering at X, said the upcoming change aims to protect users’ public image.

“Yes, we are making likes private. Public likes are encouraging the wrong behavior,” he posted on X.

For example, many people feel discouraged from liking content that might be “edgy” for fear of retaliation from trolls or to protect their public image.

“Soon you’ll be able to enjoy it without worrying about who might see it. Also a reminder that the more posts you like, the better the ‘For You’ algorithm becomes,” Wang said.

According to the social media platform, the like is visible between you and the author.

“The author will be notified, but no one else. The marker is only visible to you. We could even make it customizable for users,” according to Wang.

(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)