Twitter (X) Private Likes

Overview

Twitter (X) Private Likes refers to Elon Musk's decision to hide which posts Twitter / X users "likes" from other users. The decision was announced in June 2024 in a move meant to better protect users' privacy. Among the changes users may experience, you can still see posts you have liked, though others won't have access to see it through your profile like it was previously available. X's private likes decision enraged users and sparked a series of memes about it, often showing people's reactions to not being able to pry on other users' likes.

Background

On January 11th, 2024, X’s engineering team announced^[1] that it would be “making Likes private for everyone to better protect your privacy.” According to the tweet, users will still be able to see posts "you have liked (but others cannot)." The post (seen below) amassed more than 51,000 likes and 45,000 reposts in a day.

On June 12th, 2024, the change^[2] went into effect, as X's^[3] official account shared the They Don’t Know meme captioning "likes are now private" to announce the update on the platform. The post (seen below) received more than 90,000 likes and 14,000 reposts in a few hours.

Developments

Elon Musk's Response

On January 11th, 2024, X's CEO Elon Musk replied to a tweet about the private likes update (seen below), saying the new policy is "Important to allow people to like posts without getting attacked for doing so!" The post amassed over 181,000 likes and 20,000 reposts in a day.

Online Reactions

The private likes news was received with negative feedback from X users, who shared memes and jokes about it on the platform. For example, on June 12th, 2024, X^[4] user @laugh_track_nat posted the video of a man on the train nosily looking at someone's phone and then immediately looking away, captioning "Me still being nosy with or without likes." The post (seen below) received over 983,000 views and 44,000 reposts in a few hours.

On June 12th, 2024, X^[5] user @Cyb4rAnGeL complained about the platform's update, saying it "just ruined the fun for stalker obsessive girls like me." The tweet (seen below) amassed more than 946 likes and 61 reposts in a few hours.

Search Interest

External References