Billionaire X owner Elon Musk is looking at making changes to the social media platform again.
The former Twitter platform has undergone several radical changes in addition to being renamed since Musk bought the company in 2022. And now, the Tesla and Spece X CEO announced that another change is under consideration that would remove the “likes” and repost figures shown on a post.
While the person posting would still be able to see the number of times a post was liked or re-posted (formerly known as a ‘retweet’), it would no longer be visible to other users in the potential change, Musk explained at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference, according to Daily Mail. He also revealed to the audience that X could soon be approved to have a money transmitter license in New York.
The possibility of “likes” and reposts being altered comes after Musk has made several extreme updates to the platform.
According to Daily Mail:
Last year, he allegedly pushed engineers at the company to tweak the algorithm and boost his posts, pushing them onto users’ timelines.
In February of 2023, after Joe Biden’s Super Bowl tweet received more engagement than Musk’s, the CEO reportedly deleted the ‘flopped’ tweet and told his engineering team he would fire them if they didn’t fix the issue.
In June, Musk was accused of flouting free speech for reneging on a deal to air a Daily Wire-funded film over claims it ‘misgenders’ trans people – claims the CEO later shot down by calling the decision a ‘mistake’ made by his staffers.
In July, in a bid to woo back advertising revenue, Musk announced plans to cut ad rates on the platform by 50 percent.
In August, a new update was quietly added to the platform’s privacy policy says that X now has permission to harvest its users’ fingerprints, retinal scans, voice and face recognition and keystroke patterns.
Musk set off much speculation over the weekend after he reportedly met up with former President Donald Trump in Florida. Following reports of the meet-up, Musk posted that he would not be donating to either Trump’s presidential campaign or that of President Joe Biden.
Just to be super clear, I am not donating money to either candidate for US President
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 6, 2024
News of potential changes to X set off a wave of mixed reactions on the platform:
NEW: Elon Musk has confirmed that X will be getting rid of ‘likes’ & ‘reposts’ from the timeline view and just show impressions.
This is a great idea.
Likes & reposts will be able to be viewed once the user clicks on the post.
The move is further proof that the X algorithm… pic.twitter.com/MdjA2iNqkm
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) March 7, 2024
I think not letting people see who’s liking or viewing their post is a HUGE transparency and security issue, @elonmusk. At least now we have a clue as to who’s reading what we write. 🤔
— Baroness von M 🇺🇸 (@Brahmslover1278) March 7, 2024
Well, Elon’s plans are quite unfortunate for deboosted accounts like mine. You are getting 200K views with only 400 retweets. I need at least 5K retweets to get there.
Freedom of speech, not reach, right?
— Dr. Simon Goddek (@goddeketal) March 7, 2024
This should help smaller accounts as well. The bias of seeing a lot of likes and reposts make people more likely to like or repost, now users won’t be swayed by that engagement level.
— Mayoral Podcast (@Mayoralpodcast) March 7, 2024
Everyone else will someday realize it was the right decision.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) March 7, 2024
I think it’s an awful idea. I created a poll. Please share it wide for a larger sample size. Let the people decide, Elon!👇👇 https://t.co/eyBfVaS7zG
— Liberacrat Media™️ (@Liberacrat_) March 7, 2024
I like it because it causes people to actually read the whole post for longer form posts.
I’d guess that most posts that require a click to read in full aren’t often read, rather just liked/reposted.
I like this.
So far I’m vastly unpopular. 1/3 estimated side with me.
— Joshua Walker (@RedsRepair95) March 7, 2024
This is huge. People often will judge a post before reading it simply by looking at the likes and reposts. This will allow more people to have a say and a further diversity of opinion.
— John J. Trotta IV (@tpajohn) March 7, 2024
