‘X’ CEO, Elon Musk has claimed there has been a massive increase in the likes of posts, and more engagement since the platform decided to hide likes on posts.
Elon Musk says the change was needed to create more private and less judgemental online communities for its users. And this gives a sense of security for “X” users.
He posted the metrics in an image with a caption that reads, “Massive increase in likes after they were made private!”. Although according to a company blog post, users will still be able to see their own liked posts and who liked their own content.
However, the ability to see who liked other users’ posts has been removed. The update follows concerns that the public display of likes can discourage users from engaging with content they find interesting but potentially “edgy” due to fear of backlash.
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“Public likes are incentivizing the wrong behaviour,” said X’s director of engineering, Haofei Wang, in a previous statement. “We believe this change will encourage users to engage more freely and help our algorithms better tailor content to their interests.”
This move comes amidst a series of policy updates implemented by Musk since acquiring X in 2022. And also his current disagreement with Apple, who have decided to infuse AI into their devices operating systems.
He also announced that grok stories are now available on the platform, but for premium users only.
Overall, Grok Stories offers a quick way for premium X users to stay updated on trending topics without getting overwhelmed by the vast amount of content on the platform.
