X, formerly known as Twitter, will soon make likes private in order to help users protect their public image. Haofei Wang, Director of Engineering at X, has confirmed the move stating public likes are incentivising wrong behaviour on the platform. According to Wang, “many people feel discouraged from liking content that might be “edgy” in fear of retaliation from trolls, or to protect their public image”.
Wang encouraged users to like the posts without worrying who might see it. He concluded his post with a reminder that “For You” section algorithms get better by learning from the users’ activity on the platform, including posts they like.
Enrique Barragan, senior software engineer took to X to clarify that users will be able to see the number of posts and replies on their own post but likes of users will not be visible on other posts.
As likes influence the algorithm and one is shown similar posts, this feature will enable X to show you content similar to liked posts and allow a more personalized timeline. This feature arrives a few days after Twitter officially moved over to ‘X’ domain.