X Makes Likes Private For Privacy Reasons

X recently announced that other users could no longer see what other users like.

https://twitter.com/XEng/status/1800634371906380067

Important to allow people to like posts without getting attacked for doing so! - Elon

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1800601849973576068

Not being able to see someone's likes removes the a large chunk of the social media experience. You think this plays little role with your X experience but there are times whenever someone you follow likes a post, it gets shared on your feed too. It's also a form of content discovery especially for seeking users with common interests.

My controversial take and others that have voiced out from the change is that this doesn't benefit the average user at all. It's more on trying to keep the bigger profiles happy and other 3rd party interest.

Let's say you're a big brand that has affiliations with a notable influencer on the platform. Then that influencer happens to make an oopsie at liking something controversial then takes flak for it. You wouldn't want marketing efforts to tank on the social media front so it's better to have these features in place as an added layer of protection.

I do think part of the bullets that cancel culture weaponized is the ability to peek into someone's past interests then making a viral "gotcha" content. Cancel culture on X deserves another separate posts but you probably get the gist why toxic twitter is toxic.

I've seen artists I follow get backlash for liking stuff that is against another party's political affiliation. And this particular artist isn't even actively being political in their account, they just "like" the post and using the platform like a personal social media account is supposed to be. But because the artist has a business and image to run, people that don't like their political preference take it out on everything else, it's just started for liking something they disagree on.

Being able to see someone's past likes also makes great content. There are cases when clout chasers and virtue signaling pricks would call out to a cause but then digging up their previous like history way back months to years reveals a contradiction to what they scream against now.

But in hindsight, it may have been wise to think before you click like to any content that comes by your feed especially if you have a substantial amount of followers to note whatever you do or engage in content creation that promotes clout.

For the average user being a fan of some content creator, checking out their profile and seeing what the person you admire also likes gives you some insight on who you're looking up to.

This whole business of making likes invisible is more of protecting the bigger profiles than the average user. It makes life easier for public relations team cleaning up their candidate's mess over the space. At least now people can like R18 or lewd content without being judged harshly by their followers since likes are private.

How this annoys me? I enjoy gotcha type of content when hypocrites get exposed for liking stuff contrary to what they virtue signal for.

I follow some R18 artists on my twitter account, it's not that I'm hiding this fact, anyone who checks my account can see for themselves. I thought about how people would think of me if I followed these accounts so overtly but then it's constricting to be caged by judging eyes. I tell you, everyone has a lot of skeletons in their closets. In a space where people that are free to exercise their freedom of expression, this freedom is someone else's source of envy.

You're not as free as you think if you had to hide your interests.

Thanks for your time.

Posted Using InLeo Alpha