Adios, accountability: X to hide 'likes' for everyone this week
- Reference: 1718211795
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/06/12/x_hides_likes/
- Source link:
X's engineering team [1]shared the news on its account yesterday, saying that it planned to flip the private-like switch sometime this week. Once it does, the Likes tab on user profiles will be gone, though one can still see a list of posts they themselves have "liked." As of writing, the tab is still visible on user profiles.
The change essentially means X users will no longer be able to see who has "liked" a particular post or what posts a particular person has "liked," but users will still be able to see metrics from their own posts, as well as a full list of people who've "liked" their posts.
[2]
If this hiding system sounds half thought out and rife with possibilities for blackmail and abuse – no, it's not just you.
[3]
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X owner Elon Musk, whose preferred method of engaging with hate speech isn't to passively hit "like" but rather to [5]write an endorsement , might not have to worry about being blackmailed with his now-secret likes, but others will. Twitter accounts belonging to US Senator Ted Cruz and Kentucky state senator Jason Howell, for example, have [6]both been caught tapping "like" on pornographic posts in the past. With such an engagement secret to all but the original poster, you can begin to see the possibilities of such information in the hands of a bad actor – a fact plenty of X users pointed out in response to the X engineering team's post.
And it's not like X isn't trying to encourage users to let loose and provide it with all those juicy, personally compromising online endorsements: The company's director of engineering basically did just that last month.
[7]
"Public likes are incentivizing the wrong behavior," Haofei Wang [8]said in response to speculation that X was considering hiding "likes" by default for all users. "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 added that soon that won't be an issue, and encouraged users to smash that "like" button because "the more posts you like, the better your For you algorithm will become."
[9]Elon Musk made 1 in 3 Trust and Safety staff ex-X employees, it emerges
[10]IP address X-posure now a feature on Musk's social media thing
[11]Twitter 'supersharers' of fake news tend to be older Republican women
[12]Twitter's ex-CEO, CFO, and managers sue Elon Musk for $128M
Beyond the possibilities for blackmail, other X users responding to the engineering team pointed out that the decision to get rid of public "likes" is essentially an admission that X can't solve its bot problem, once a [13]dealbreaker for Musk's purchase of Twitter. Since the billionaire strolled into HQ [14]carrying a sink , however, researchers have found that bots are a [15]worse problem than before.
The move also kills the community's ability to validate a post's engagement, one user pointed out, by being able to verify that "likes" came from organic users and not bots. Others said it would do nothing but enable fraud and make it easier to manipulate posts related to [16]upcoming elections in the US and elsewhere.
We contacted X with questions, but only got the standard response that it was "busy now" and we should "check back later." ®
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[1] https://twitter.com/XEng/status/1800634371906380067
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZmoagWpO3ISuSh4E32yIvQAAABY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZmoagWpO3ISuSh4E32yIvQAAABY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZmoagWpO3ISuSh4E32yIvQAAABY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/30/musk_murders_x/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/31/x_biometric_employment_data/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZmoagWpO3ISuSh4E32yIvQAAABY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://twitter.com/wanghaofei/status/1793096366132195529
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/11/elon_musk_twitter_safety_cull/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/05/ip_address_xposure_now_a/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/01/twitter_supersharers_of_fake_news/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/05/twitter_management_sue_musk/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/13/musk_twitter_on_hold/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/27/musk_sink_twitter/
[15] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/09/x-twitter-bots-republican-primary-debate-tweets-increase
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/10/doj_election_security/
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
You can't blackmail someone with information that is in the public domain. If a family-values politician is enjoying some pornography and accidentally hits the like button, they may well pay someone to not reveal that information.
> You can't blackmail someone with information that is in the public domain. If a family-values politician is enjoying some pornography and accidentally hits the like button, they may well pay someone to not reveal that information.
I get that, but in the suggested example, the politician had no problem liking porn when "likes" were publicly visible, unless I understood correctly.
So why would someone care about private likes if they don't care about public likes? I suppose mileage might vary depending on the user.
And if you are a politician that cares about their image, why wouldn't they just not "like" the porn? I mean, what is the point of "liking" something if no-one else knows?
You think these politicians clicked "like" on purpose, knowing full-well that anyone could see it? Preposterous. They either clicked by accident, or mistakenly thought the "like" was private. If they could have paid a small blackmail to keep these events private after realizing their folly, they may well have done so.
Try to imagine what people could start to like once they expect their likes to be kind of "private" and not directly attributable to them...
Even though true privacy on X is at least improbable, some (most?) remaining users will probably believe it.
Once an expectation of privacy sets in with those users, they could start to like all sort of even more "edgy" things which they did not dare to like before: drugs, sexual content, right/left wing nuts posts, satanic stuff, etc., not necessarily clearly illegal, but nevertheless potentially damaging to a person's reputation in the society/peer group/party they are embedded in?
Let this go on for a while and the potential for blackmail using the "secret" like-data from X is not an unrealistic scenario.
Please Flush Twice............
Even if it's all down hill to X[.]com.
Re: Please Flush Twice............
It seems like an unfortunate proposal on the part of X, people should decide whether to do it publicly or privately.
Smash that Like button like there's no tomorrow
And wake up one morning to the horror that His Muskiness has u-turned again and the whole world can see what you liked when you maybe shouldn't have in polite society.
Re: Smash that Like button like there's no tomorrow
Don't worry, there will be a new subscription plan to keep those Likes hidden. They're playing the long game.
Re: Smash that Like button like there's no tomorrow
They're certainly playing a game, not sure it's a long one. Seems more like throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks.
Huh... people still use that?
Not even Tumblr worked this hard to maje people stop using it.
Then again X now allows porn.
I really don't care whether members of the government 'like' porn or not.
I just wish they were competent at governing the nation.
They can frolic naked with farm animals on their days off for all I care. I just want them to be less crap in their capacity as ministers of state.
> Twitter accounts belonging to US Senator Ted Cruz and Kentucky state senator Jason Howell, for example, have both been caught tapping "like" on pornographic posts in the past. With such an engagement secret to all but the original poster, you can begin to see the possibilities of such information in the hands of a bad actor – a fact plenty of X users pointed out in response to the X engineering team's post.
Seems a bit of a stretch to me. If people are happy to "like" pornographic posts in the public glare for all to see, I don't know why anyone would care if only a single person knows.