X says Likes are now private for everyone, meaning users are no longer able to see who liked someone else's post
I wonder if they've made bookmarks easier to find in the UI. Kylie Robison / The Verge : X is about to start hiding all likes Threads: @bobbyallyn : now that Twitter likes are private, this is a good opportunity for IG to buck the trend and bring back the Following tab Alex Stamos / @alex.stamos : A question for the legal minds: now that likes are private, would leaking the likes of somebody to cause embarrassment (and without any legitimate purpose recognized by 2703) be an ECPA violation? X: @xeng : This week we're making Likes private for everyone to better protect your privacy. - You will still be able to see posts you have liked (but others cannot). - Like count and other metrics for your own posts will still show up under notifications. - You will no longer see who... Elon Musk / @elonmusk : Important to allow people to like posts without getting attacked for doing so! @xeng : Starting today, Likes are private for everyone. Liking more posts will make your For you timeline better. Elon Musk / @elonmusk : Important change: your likes are now private Elon Musk / @elonmusk : Massive increase in likes after they were made private! [image] Matt Turck / @mattturck : HOW AM I NOW SUPPOSED TO SNOOP ON WHICH OTHER VC LIKED THE POSTS OF THE FOUNDERS I AM STALKING ONLINE [image] @notsofiacoppola : Now that twitter likes are private, there's a man who is currently scrolling through my media tab and liking every boob selfie. He just reached 2021. Huge day for him. [image] Tom Gara / @tomgara : Tonight is like The Purge for horny Twitter guys @scottpresler : @elonmusk I'm liking this post & making a comment, so people know I liked it. @sassafrass_84 : @elonmusk I would have much preferred you get rid of the porn bots. That's a huge problem. @snazzylabs : @elonmusk This is such an idiotic idea that either comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of your own platform or to outwardly mask malicious activity inflation. There's really no in between. Especially given the tools exist to hide likes—and have for years. @esatoshiclub : @elonmusk Why not make them optional to be hidden? Baby Doge / @babydogecoin : @elonmusk Pointless update. You could've made it optional. It's essential for community members to look through our likes as they're relevant to our brand. Jason Whitlock / @whitlockjason : @elonmusk Any chance we can make who we follow private? @stats_feed : @elonmusk Now no one will see how interesting my posts are? Tiberius / @ecomarxi : @elonmusk I wonder why you're doing this [image] @quackity : @X if you dont return them im making a new account that posts pictures of everything i like on my other accounts Ethan Price / @paradox_ep : @X Yeah you guys made it an option and nobody turned it on so now u forced it on everybody 😔 I found lots of good stuff in people's likes which generated engagement. Should've left it as a toggle @x : likes are now private [image] @snazzylabs : The encrapification of Twitter continues. You've been able to hide your likes from public viewing for literal years for those that don't want to share. And bookmarking privately saved stuff you didn't want to “like.” They (mostly Elon) don't even understand their own website. Marissa Lorusso / @mrsslrss : terrible news for anyone with a crush Mr. Chau / @srirachachau : There's like a million better things you could be focusing on, spam bots are posting hole in the replies and the place is falling apart Aaron Long / @aalong64 : but I want people to see my likes. my likes are immaculate. my likes are endorsements. my likes are a reflection of what I like. @alecrobbins : what a coincidence because i no longer Like this website! sorry too good of a tee-up. how's everyone's evening going @castletongreene : Every single update you make is horrible Quinton Reviews / @q_review : There's literally hardcore smug being shared under everyone's posts but you've been hard at work making sure Ted Cruz can like all the incest videos he wants without people finding out CC Kirby / @_cckirby : RIP to one of the all-time greatest bits on this entire website, dril's twitter likes [image] Max / @mad_max_997 : This is the whole reason they're doing this btw [image] Andrew Male / @andr6wmale : This is a) fucking deranged b) The removal of one of Twitter's best innovations. This will suck even more joy out of this hellsite. Topher Florence / @topherflorence : this is discrimination against like lurkers. some people never even post but still have an interesting likes page. this is 9/11 for people who thought it was funny when ted cruz liked that porn tweet on 9/11 Dan Walden / @dwaldenwrites : banner day for all the guys who post about traditional biblical morals and are also pathologically addicted to porn @frict : Twitter is killing one of the best bits ever and I'm upset [image] Merritt K / @merrittk : literally just bc dude isnt getting enough likes on his tweets. wouldnt have lasted an hour back in the favstar days @quantian1 : Is this not literally what bookmarks were added for? And then Elon demanded bookmark count be public, because he thought people were bookmarking his tweets instead of liking them out of fear of the woke mob etc.? The man just cannot accept people think his tweets are shitty. Skye / @skyera1n : @XEng Why does everything done to this platform only make it worse? I've yet to see a good decision made. Jean-Michel Connard / @torriangray : [image] @xdevelopers : Private Likes - API Update 📢 As part of the likes change on X native platform, X API will mirror https://x.com/. Thus, ‘Likes Lookup’ will now be private in the API as well. Owned ‘Likes Lookup’ will be available for authenticated users only. Learn more about it in... Forums: r/Destiny : No fun allowed update. How are we supposed too make fun of conservatives liking trans porn or Hasan liking groyper posts?! r/technews : X is about to start hiding all likes
Context & Ripple Effects
X had already proposed letting paid users hide Likes, including from its API; this expands that earlier selective hiding of Likes into a platform-wide default. It also follows X’s broader tightening of unauthenticated access, including requiring sign-in to browse content on the web.
The change matters because Likes had been both a social signal and a usable public-data layer. X is now aligning the interface and API around the idea that a user’s endorsement history is not generally observable.
First-order effects
- Users can no longer inspect who liked another person’s post, while retaining access to their own liked posts and their posts’ like metrics.
- Developers lose public Likes Lookup access; X limits Owned Likes Lookup to authenticated users, immediately narrowing third-party use of like-history data.
Second-order effects
- Tools and researchers that inferred interests, affiliations, or engagement patterns from public liker lists must reduce or redesign that analysis around data they can still access.
- Public like counts remain visible, but the removal of named likers shifts engagement interpretation from identifiable endorsements to aggregate metrics.
Third-order effects
- If maintained, the policy strengthens a platform pattern in which behavioral data is treated as permissioned account data rather than public web data, increasing X’s control over downstream analysis and reuse.
- The move may reduce harassment tied to visible endorsements, but it also makes independent scrutiny of how engagement forms and spreads harder; the balance will depend on X’s remaining data-access rules.
The trend: Social platforms are increasingly converting once-public interaction signals into private, authenticated data governed by platform-controlled access rules.