X plans to let paid users hide their Likes from other users and “from the X APIs”, reversing a longstanding feature; individual Likes will appear on posts
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch : X: @xdaily . Forums: r/technology X: @xdaily : NEWS: The ability to hide the ‘Likes’ tab is now live across devices. You can access it if you are a Premium subscriber via Settings -> Premium -> Preferences -> Early access -> Profile customization [image] Forums: r/technology : X, formerly Twitter, is now letting paid users hide their likes | TechCrunch
Context & Ripple Effects
X had already made profile presentation a Premium feature through its option to hide verified checkmarks, and this extends that model to a user’s engagement history.
The move also foreshadows X’s later platform-wide shift to private Likes, turning an initially paid customization into a broader change in what social activity is visible.
First-order effects
- Premium subscribers can remove their Likes tab from public view and from X’s APIs, while Likes remain visible on the posts themselves.
- Developers and other API users lose access to a subscriber’s consolidated Like history, limiting a previously available activity signal.
Second-order effects
- The change gives X another privacy and customization benefit to differentiate Premium, while analytics, monitoring, and discovery products must rely more on post-level signals.
- By separating visible reactions on posts from a browsable profile history, X reduces the ease of mapping a user’s interests and affiliations at scale.
Third-order effects
- If expanded beyond Premium—as X later did with private Likes for all users—social platforms may treat engagement histories as private-by-default rather than as public profile data.
- The policy illustrates growing platform control over access to behavioral signals: visibility can be segmented by product tier and restricted through APIs, reshaping which third parties can build on social data.
The trend: This is one step in social platforms’ shift from openly browsable engagement data toward platform-controlled, privacy-oriented access layers.