Elon Musk’s X now hides Likes on posts

“Likes” on social media platform X, formally known as Twitter,are now private for all users.

The update was  posted on the platform by X’s engineering team on Wednesday with CEO Elon Musk highlighting the “important change.”

Protection of privacy

“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 liked someone else’s post. A post’s author can see who liked its posts,” X’s engineering team said.

Important change: your likes are now private https://t.co/acUL8HqjUJ

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The sky is blue for me, Elon

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 12, 2024

The new update puts an end to a feature that many had long used. On Wednesday, the tab on most users’ profiles showing what posts they had liked had disappeared.

Users also received a pop-up notification that seemed to suggest the change would result in more user engagement.

“Liking more posts will make your ‘For you’ feed better,” the message read.

Other benefits

In March, Musk, in a post on X, wrote that people with more than 2,500 followers, who are verified subscribers, will get access to all Premium features on X for free.

In addition to this, people who have 5,000 verified subscribers following them will get Premium+ features at no cost.

X Premium and Premium+ subscribers have additional benefits including access to GrokAI, the newly-launched AI chatbot.

ALSO READ: Elon Musk’s xAI secures $6 billion in new funding

AI

Grok AI was unveiled in November last year and was introduced as an AI assistant that will answer questions with “wit and also has a rebellious streak.” The xAI team wrote in a tweet that those who lack a sense of humour shouldn’t use the chatbot.

xAI said  its primary focus was to develop “advanced AI systems that are truthful, competent, and maximally beneficial for all of humanity”.

Last month Musk’s xAI said it has raised $6 billion from investors in an increasingly crowded artificial intelligence market.

The latest funding, including from well-known venture capitalists and a Saudi prince, takes the firm’s total valuation to $24 billion, based on a pre-infusion figure of $18 billion cited by Musk.

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