any type of content without being judged by other users. This freedom comes as a response to protect the public image of the users while still appreciating “edgy” content.
The company’s director states in an X post, “Yeah, we are making likes private. Public likes are incentivizing the wrong behavior. For example, many people feel discouraged from liking content that might be "edgy" in fear of retaliation from trolls, or to protect their public image.”. So, with this new update, everyone will have the ability and liberty to appreciate and keep their opinions private if this is what they want.
The company’s director of engineering also stated, “Soon you’ll be able to like without worrying who might see it. Also, a reminder that the more posts you like, the better your For you algorithm will become”.
This decision comes as a response to public figures or high-profile users who were judged for their likes, history, and appreciation posts that were not aligned with common opinions. For example, Ted Cruz and Liu Xiaoming, the UK-Chinese ambassador, were both taken onto the radar after liking pornographic content. Even more so, users found out that Elon Musk was appreciating transphobic posts.
This update comes in a line of many other updates that X has gone through. After Elon Musk took over, the platform didn’t even sustain the ability to block users or strip headlines from news post previews.
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