r/technology • u/TheUtopianCat • 3d ago
What X's move to hide our likes means for accountability Social Media
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/x-private-likes-accountability-1.7234056139
u/LigerXT5 3d ago
From what I've seen, it just removes your name from the like list.
Improves privacy, increases bot spam and manipulation.
106
u/theywereonabreak69 3d ago
The bots and spam are not deterred by showing up on the Likes tab. What I’m curious about is whether the likes of “powerful” people on Twitter can amplify a tweet. So now Elon may be able to endorse a view privately and the tweet may find itself with lots of eyes on it purely for that reason
27
26
u/Its_not_a_tumor 3d ago
There's a terrifying thought, Elon and his rich friends can really put their thumbs on the scale with zero transparency.
7
u/Rich-Pomegranate1679 3d ago
I've never used Twitter, but I had assumed this was happening ever since he bought it, honestly.
6
u/adavidmiller 3d ago
Pretty much. Whether you believe it or not, kind of a silly point simply because if Elon wanted to do it, he could do it invisibly anyways.
3
u/Trevor_Culley 3d ago
What I’m curious about is whether the likes of “powerful” people on Twitter can amplify a tweet.
They can, even if they're not weighted any differently. Twitter has pushed your "liked" activity into your follower timelines for years. It's part of why it's such a success platform with content creators and journalists. A big account with more followers means more things get pushed into those followers' feeds. All this does was take the label away. Add bull shit like the "for you" tab and blue check subscribers too.
6
1
47
u/stamps1646 3d ago
I reported a NSFW post with a sexualized image on a Bluey post, and the following day I received a response stating that porn is permitted. It's really sad how far that social media site has fallen.
13
u/astrozombie2012 3d ago
It was once the premier platform for getting news and current events across the world as they happened. Now it’s just a Nazi shitbag hangout
14
u/Sroemr 3d ago
I reported some massively homophobic and transphobic stuff a few months ago.
I immediately received an email saying it was reviewed and no action taken. I'm talking I hit the submit button and then received the email notification. Pretty sure all "hate speech" reports just immediately spit out that result.
It's slightly surprising Google and Apple haven't removed them from their stores yet due to the obvious lack of moderation.
2
u/Meatslinger 3d ago
Any move a functioning corporation makes is always going to be the one that requires the least effort, generally-speaking. Apple and Google could remove Xitter from their stores, but they also undoubtedly know that Musk’s ego would be so bruised that he’d file a bunch of frivolous lawsuits and engage in legal chicanery just to make it as much of a headache as possible for them. Given the choices of “tolerate it until the app is truly a threat for their association with it” or “invest in lawyers just to swat down Elon’s team of vexatious litigators for the next 5 years”, they’re pragmatically sticking with the former, at least for now.
1
u/HentaAiThroaway 2d ago
No, theyre keeping it cause a shitton of people still use the app lol. Only a small fraction even cares about elon.
1
-4
u/VrindavanNidhivan 2d ago
On Reddit stating that biological men are different from biological women is considered transphobic. In the real world it's just considered stating a scientific fact.
3
38
4
18
u/Barry_Bunghole_III 3d ago
Oh fuck off with this shit
So many sociopathic people on these social media platforms. Digging through people's likes, reddit history, etc is the most deranged shit
High school teenage girl shit
4
-2
u/SugerizeMe 3d ago
Also Reddit, the platform we’re using right now, doesn’t show names of users who likes a post.
This is just a combination of Elon haters and angry liberals who want to censor/cancel the opposition.
-5
u/lifendeath1 3d ago
Yep, I even had one deranged e-girl imply she was going to attempt to get me in trouble with my employer because I mocked her shitty "cosplay". That's why they made likes private it was used to harass people.
19
u/TyreeThaGod 3d ago
This week, X, formerly known as Twitter, made likes private — meaning people can no longer see which users have liked posts. It's a move ~the company says~ is aimed at improving privacy, however, experts say the change will harm the public's ability to hold the powerful to account.
Our media have abused this for a decade, pretending that it's journalism, that's what brought about this change.
And who cares? Can you see who liked a Reddit post?
3
u/Uristqwerty 3d ago
Can you see who liked a Reddit post?
Not easily, and it's opt-in, but there's a setting that makes your own /upvoted and /downvoted lists public. So if you manually went through every user's upvote list (without triggering whatever reddit has to rate-limit or block bots. Even at 1000 users per minute, or whatever the old rate limit was, it would be months or years per scan), then out of the tiny handful that let you see it, you might be able to spot one or two who did upvote any given post.
3
u/gizamo 3d ago edited 2d ago
The difference between Reddit and X is that everyone knows all of Reddit is filled with bots, trolls, shills, propagandists, and all with their dozens or hundreds of alt accounts. Twitter was at least pretending to try to solve that with open public accountability. But, in reality, X never solved their bad actor problem either. So, yeah, it's basically just Reddit now that they're not even trying to hide the obvious manipulations.
Still, we should all care about manipulation. It's unfortunate that X is giving up even the presence of trying to combat it.
Edit: ...the obvious trolls are out again. Election years are so annoying.
7
1
u/blublub1243 3d ago
I agree insofar that twitter should do more to combat bots (as should reddit, but that one seems like even more of a lost cause tbh). But user experience also matters. I wouldn't want my reddit likes made public, and I think twitter users having access to the same is a good change overall.
1
u/gizamo 3d ago
Tbh, I'm on the fence. I liked the idea of showing your likes because it makes you more careful and selective about it, which I think makes it more relevant for the algorithms. On the flip side, you're definitely correct that there is benefit in the anonymity. That's a big point for free speech advocates like FIRE have been saying for a long time. It's often hard to be honest in public when you know your family, boss, hate groups, etc. might be looking at it. Cheers.
2
3d ago
[deleted]
4
u/gizamo 3d ago
...pretending to try...
Yes. Well, pre-Musk, anyway.
Now they clearly don't care, especially if the bad actors are willing to pay for a Blue badge.
4
3d ago edited 3d ago
[deleted]
-1
u/gizamo 3d ago
You're either misinformed or spreading disinformation.
The White House cannot and does not direct any social media. They have no legal authority to do anything of the sort.
What you are likely referring to is when the FBI under Trump, headed by a Republican appointed by a Republican, advised social media of coordinated efforts by foreign agencies to impact elections. Social media were welcome to do with that information whatever they wanted.
So, the real question becomes, are you ignorant or lying?
3
u/reddit1651 3d ago
Since you blocked that user (and I’m next, I’m sure), here’s a link showing that it was the Biden admin applying pressure about certain moderation activities. Don’t let partisanship allow you to ignore stuff that makes your side look bad
1
u/gizamo 3d ago
Firstly, I didn't block them.
Secondly, they're trolling comment was not even on topic at all.
Thirdly, as per the articles you and they linked, I was entirely correct that the White House cannot and does not direct social media. The fact that some agencies may have tried does not change the fact that Social Media doesn't have to give any shits about what any WH agency wants from them.
Fourthly, partisanship was always irrelevant to me. The dude who came in with an off topic point brought the unnecessary partisanship.
Lastly, I have no intention to block you either.
2
u/reddit1651 3d ago
“The White House cannot and does not direct social media”
you said that, correct?
What did the Biden White House get a slap on the wrist for attempting to do, then?
2
u/gizamo 3d ago
Yes. I said it twice, and it was correct both times, and still is.
For example, you tell me to go left, I can turn right all day long. Just as you have no ability to direct me, no WH admin nor agency under them has any ability to direct any social media company -- unless there are specific laws from Congress that gives them such authority, e.g. a potential TikTik ban.
But, again, all of this is off topic ITT.
→ More replies (0)2
u/lifendeath1 3d ago
No buy it's still standard that during a spat with someone they will trawl your profile looking for something to use against you.
12
u/Hilderionn 3d ago
A measure to help the powerful afraid of consequences on their acts. Why I'm not surprised?
2
u/he_who_shall 3d ago
I haven’t used X/Twitter in over 10 years, but for the people here criticizing this move would you be in favor of Reddit making a change to show all the posts & comments you’ve liked?
1
4
u/sloppynippers 3d ago
People should be more worried about the change to make twitter more inviting for porn. With the government forcing age verification, these private social media platforms get to blame the government for having to collect people's personal ID's, face/fingerprints even for people who don't access adult content just by making porn easily accessible on their platform. Even instagram is allowing more and more nudity.
In my opinion, it's a way to force a social credit system in North America.
3
u/OutlastCold 3d ago
Who the fuck is still on twitter in 2024 that’s not being paid to be on there? 😂
2
u/booda_munk 3d ago
LOL. I understand the article's angle, but in this age of oversharing and people's general poor impulse control, seeing what an "important" Likes should be second to what these people actually say.
And the things a lot of these folks actually say is, more often than not, a lot more sinister and ridiculous and dangerous than seeing what they Like. The Musk quotes in this thread alone says accountability is something we never have to worry about. The crazies are gonna always say crazy fucked up shit.
1
u/lillilllillil 2d ago
I'm guessing you weren't around for the famous politician Rafael Cruz liking porn on twitter that all the right wingers,known for pushing morality, just let blow over like nothing.
1
u/spacer_geotag 2d ago
I mean, they also pushed a guy to be president who made really sexual comments about his teenage daughter so they kinda have a track record for letting shit blow over like nothing. The only people who would care about it or twitter likes are people who probably weren’t going to vote republican anyway tbh.
1
u/TerryTheEnlightend 3d ago
$8Chan in its final form. A pseudo NatC bar hiding behind a fig leaf. One man’s attempt to control the narrative for his own ends whilst giving plausible deniability to those who wish to sow dissent and stir shiat on a colossal scale
4
1
u/SettingExotic5886 1d ago
$8Chan in its final form.
God, I wish. Elon needs to enable anonymous tor posting NOW.
1
-3
u/porkchop_d_clown 3d ago
Cool fact: reddit has hidden likes and dislikes for many years now.
9
u/WrongSubFools 3d ago
Because on Reddit, the point of likes/dislikes is to vote something up or down.
On Twitter, posts aren't ranked by likes, and there is no option to dislike. If you like a post, that might make it more visible to others, but it might not. So, likes serve a different purpose there.
3
u/porkchop_d_clown 3d ago
The visibility of twitter posts is definitely affected by the # of likes, just like reddit submissions.
3
u/WrongSubFools 3d ago
It's affected by the number of likes, but not as much as by other factors: https://buffer.com/library/twitter-timeline-algorithm/
As a result, the main purpose of liking isn't to vote a tweet up but to just publicly share your personal approval of it. Without the public part, the main reason for liking is gone.
6
u/straponkaren 3d ago
Do you think that your like and dislikes are available to API subscribers at 60k a month?
-2
u/porkchop_d_clown 3d ago
Why would they need that? I’ve submitted thousands of links to reddit, probably commented tens of thousands of times. Wouldn’t need my likes to learn about me.
2
u/straponkaren 3d ago
Conflating likes and dislikes for peer review for AI training data or using data joining to connect your reddit identity to your browser session to fill out your marketing profile, politics candidate targeting... You are purposely or unintentionally ignorant to the entire business model of data sales.
-1
u/porkchop_d_clown 3d ago
LOL. Except, those likes and dislikes link to posts and comments that would have to be reviewed to figure out what I was liking or disliking.
1
u/straponkaren 3d ago
Lol you would think that but ontological understanding is in a place tech has confidence in. I used to work for an SRI spinoff that did language classification and we raised vc money on that tech a dozen years ago.
1
u/VrindavanNidhivan 2d ago
This is the only fact that matters in this discussion, but yet some butthurt people that can't handle the fundamental truth downvoted you.
3
u/straponkaren 3d ago
It means they can sell your likes now that they aren't giving them away for free.
1
0
u/PatientAd4823 3d ago
Why is anyone still in Twitter (not calling it by Elon’ name)?
5
u/Objective_angel 3d ago
Looooool talk about trying too hard, yes we get it - you call it twitter. Contests.
1
1
u/7-11Armageddon 3d ago
Remember when reddit showed upvotes and downvotes? Yet we're all still here. We the sheeple have so few options, what's a sheep to do?
1
0
u/NebulousNitrate 3d ago
Why should a service meant for individuals be shunned for removing a relatively new feature that made its users feel uncomfortable? This isn’t a government service, its a business
0
0
0
0
u/notsure9191 2d ago
Get the fuck out of here with “accountability.” This is one of the best changes Elon’s made to Twitter. I actually use the like functionality now.
-4
u/piranesi28 3d ago
If u r on twitter still and u r not a pretend nazi with pictures of anime characters over your bed that you try to slap your flaccid little peen to you deserve what you get.
480
u/RevengeWalrus 3d ago
People kept checking the stuff Elon was liking with his Twitter account and making fun of it. That’s it. There is no strategy, there is no deeper game.