'Likes' on X posts to go private; reasons behind this change explained

Amidst recent speculation on Elon Musk's X platform's plans to make 'likes' on posts 'private', the Director of Engineering at X, Haofei Wang, has now confirmed the update, stating "Yeah, we are making likes private".

With this change, users will not be able to view posts that other users may have liked.

While justifying the move, Wang stated on X that "Public likes are incentivizing the wrong behavior. For example, many people feel discouraged from liking content that might be "edgy" in fear of retaliation from trolls, or to protect their public image."

He further stated as "a reminder that the more posts you like, the better your For you algorithm will become."

Currently, X users may choose to make their 'likes' public, however, this change to 'private' will now be a default setting.

In addressing the buzz and questions on the move to make 'likes' private on the platform, Enrique Barragan, a senior software engineer at X, clarified the new specifics. That, as a user:
"- you will be able to see who liked your posts
- you can see the like count for all posts / replies / etc
- you cannot see the people who liked someone else's post
- you cannot see others "Liked" tab on their profile."

What are your thoughts about this? Let us know in the comments below.