X/Twitter Innovates Privacy: Concealing Likes to Foster Genuine Engagement

X/Twitter is progressively concealing users' likes (favorites) lists, meaning that when visiting someone's profile, it will no longer be possible to see the content they have liked. This change is being rolled out to all users starting today.

Why hide the likes list? Normally, users express their interest in content through likes, but some content may not be suitable for public display.

X aims to allow users to continue liking content they enjoy without others seeing it, thus protecting user privacy while encouraging active engagement with preferred content, including potentially controversial topics.

The Like Algorithm Continues Unchanged:

For users: Actively liking content they enjoy means X's recommendation algorithm will suggest more similar content, enriching the recommended timeline with more interesting posts.

For creators (authors/followers): Likes remain a crucial metric for the recommendation algorithm. More likes increase the chance of being recommended, leading to more visibility, more likes, and more followers.

Additionally, the user receiving likes can still see who liked their content. It is uncertain if X will make further changes, such as completely hiding the like list.

Lastly, Twitter's founder, Jack Dorsey, commented on this feature. Originally, Twitter's like was a star ⭐, representing a favorite function.

Later, X changed the star to a heart ❤️, turning it into a "like" and additionally introduced a bookmark feature. So, Dorsey questions, what's the difference from the original favorite function? According to him, X shouldn't have made these changes.