Social Media Platform X Will Hide Likes From Posts
- Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
- Fact-Checked by
Haofei Wang, X’s Director of Engineering, has confirmed through the social media platform that “likes” will soon become a private feature, meaning only authors of the posts will be able to see them. The information was disclosed after MacRumors researcher Aaron Perris shared images of the new look on X after enabling the new feature that hides the likes on the iOS application.
“Yeah, we are making likes private,” wrote Wang referencing Perris’ post. “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.”
Wang explains that by protecting users’ likes privacy, they will have more freedom and it will help the algorithm provide more relevant content. Currently, anyone on the platform can go to a user’s profile and see their likes in chronological order.
“Soon you’ll be able to like without worrying who might see it. Also, a reminder that the more posts you like, the better your ‘For you’ algorithm will become,” wrote Wang.
User Opinions on the New Update
This new update was reported only days after X changed Twitter’s URL to X.com , and is part of an ongoing, complex rebranding process that has already made multiple users debate and rage. This time many reacted and shared opinions and concerns.
“Or, hear me out, you can leave it the way it is since literally nobody asked for this,” commented one user on Wang’s post. “I’m okay with this for other people’s posts but it’s really important that people can see who liked their posts,” said another one, “kill the dopamine, kill the app.”
Enrique Barragan, X Senior Software Engineer, joined the discussion to provide more details . Barragan explained that the authors will be able to see who liked their posts, as well as like counts and replies, but will not be able to see who liked someone else’s post or a user’s Like tab on their X profile.
Scientific studies do actually show that social media’s success is very much a result of the dopamine-inducing ability to get the most like possible. “Every notification, whether it’s a text message, a “like” on Instagram, or a Facebook notification, has the potential to be a positive social stimulus and dopamine influx,” explains a document from Harvard’s Science in the News .
But X is not the first platform to make adjustments to the likes feature. A few years ago, Instagram also updated the likes feature to let users hide their likes count to “depressurize people’s experience.”
X has not disclosed when this big change will happen nor made an official announcement, but since two members of the company have confirmed the update publicly, users should expect this new change soon.
OpenAI And News Corp Announce New Partnership
- Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
- Fact-Checked by
OpenAI and the American mass media News Corp announced a new partnership last Wednesday. The new multi-year agreement will allow OpenAI to access and use content from major publications including The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, The Times, The Sun, and The Daily Telegraph.
“We’re joining forces with News Corp to support the highest journalistic standards and enrich our products with its premium journalism,” states OpenAI in the press release . Besides gaining access to archived and current content from numerous publications owned by News Corp, the news corporation will also “share journalistic expertise to help ensure the highest journalism standards.”
“Our partnership with News Corp is a proud moment for journalism and technology,” said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. “Together, we are setting the foundation for a future where AI deeply respects, enhances, and upholds the standards of world-class journalism.”
Robert Thomson, News Corp’s chief executive, said he was “delighted” with the new agreement and sees it as “the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
According to Fast Company , Fox News—part of Fox Corporation but linked to News Corp by media mogul Rupert Murdoch — will not be included in the deal. OpenAI also clarified that “the partnership does not include access to content from any of News Corp’s other businesses.”
Just a few days ago, OpenAI also announced a new partnership with Reddit. As reported by Fast Company, OpenAI has already built alliances with The Financial Times, Dotdash Meredith, Shutterstock, and international publishers like Prisa Media and Axel Springer.
This new journalistic alliance arrived weeks after 8 newspapers sued OpenAI and Microsoft for using its content without permission to feed chatbots, requesting compensation for using the information in the articles.
OpenAI seems to be achieving agreements to protect itself from future lawsuits for using content to feed its generative AI models and building alliances to improve services and gain strength in the generative AI race .
