Elon Musk’s X is set to make likes private on the social network, in a change that could leave users confused about the difference between something they’ve liked and something they’ve bookmarked. According to his new posts Company employeesthe decision to hide likes is intended to incentivize engagement by allowing users to like content that appears “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, like more signal for its algorithm so it can better personalize its content to your interests.
The change seems somewhat unnecessary given that X, the company formerly known as Twitter, already had a private way to store posts on the platform: bookmarks. While X’s bookmarks are for collecting posts you might want to refer to or threads you might want to read later, they also served as a more private alternative to liking.
Adding to the confusion is the fact that Users will be able to see who has liked their posts as well as likes count for all their posts and replies. In other words, the private like is only semi-private — known to the poster, who could theoretically expose someone’s likes if they wanted to. If X tries to incentivize “transparent” engagement, such as liking posts that contain adult content or extreme political positions, people may still be reluctant to “like” that content, given that it is not a completely private system.
Instead, they may continue to use X’s bookmarks or even external link storage tools to save those posts they like that they 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, nor will they be able to browse someone’s likes through a tab on their profile. This could help eliminate snooping by others, but it also removes a useful discovery feature.
If you’ve just joined X, for example, you can browse the likes of others you follow to get ideas about who else you might find interesting and attractive. Alternatively, if you explore another person’s profile to determine whether you want to follow them, you could use their preferences to understand what kind of content they generally engage with.
The real problem with likes is that creating the feature changed the meaning of what was a bookmark feature. Before it was renamed from a star to a heart symbol, as was the fashion at the time, the feature was more of a “favorite” than a sign of support. Users could theoretically like anything, because doing so doesn’t mean they enjoyed or agreed with the content.
Instead, it could be something they just documented — a statement by a politician you disagreed with greatly but wanted to remember. a post that warranted further investigation. posts you collected to later create a collection Moments (RIP) the most embarrassing or ridiculous posts by a billionaire and more. No one could reasonably accuse you of liking the content because you didn’t click a heart icon, thus giving you plausible deniability.
When Twitter switched from stars to hearts, users were outraged. They realized that hearts had a completely different meaning, which affected how they would use the social network.
Wrote TechCrunch at the time, “Like is restrictive in what it allows a user to express,” while the Favorite feature could mean all kinds of things, including a “thank you, a handshake, a tip of the hat or even a Robert De Niro look down.” TechCrunch said at the time that switching from stars to hearts wouldn’t solve Twitter’s biggest problems with growing its user base and building more engagement, and it largely didn’t. The company had to find exits a quarter after a quarter of solid growth.
As a result of the backlash over the change, Twitter later rolled out Bookmarks to bring back a way to keep something private, including those posts you didn’t necessarily agree with, as well as those you intended to reference again.
Now, as X shifts functionality around likes once again, many users are registering their frustration. On X, people are suggesting a variety of alternatives to this proposed change, such as making likes private as an option, not the default, or long-pressing the heart icon to leave an anonymous like. Others warned that the privatization of likes could lead to manipulation, as creators used armies of bots to amplify their content and help them generate revenue.
There is another solution, and one hinted at by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Although 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 he is Bluesky some sort of censorship platform — on the likes vs. stars debate, he’s on to something.
Dorsey wrote in a post on X: “Like/❤️ was originally a ⭐️. we should never have moved away from it.”
His post has over 700 likes and many replies agreeing with the sentiment.
If what follows X doesn’t add more privacy around user engagement features, but rather more signals for its algorithm, no need to hide likes. A simple swipe from the heart icon — maybe to a star! — would be a much less dramatic change while achieving the same goal.
