Tech billionaire Elon Musk has confirmed that the popular social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, will soon start hiding users’ like reactions to posts.
Although the of likes count from someone else’s post will be hidden, users will still be able to see how many people liked their post, as well as how many posts they have liked, Forbes reported.
Explaining the reason behind it, Musk re-shared a post on X, writing, “Important to allow people to like posts without getting attacked for doing so.”
Earlier on May 21, director of engineering Haofei Wang at X had said in a post that the social media platform would be making the switch.
He said, “Public likes are incentivising the wrong behaviour … many people feel discouraged from liking content that might be ‘edgy’ in fear of retaliation from trolls, or to protect their public image.”
X Senior Software Engineer Enrique Barragan had also in late May hinted at a policy change.
Ever since Musk took charge of X, he has made a number of changes, including changing the name of the platform, as well as introducing a premium plan that presents users with more customised options.
