Musk adds major new privacy feature on X, the site formerly known as Twitter

Elon Musk, currently ranked the richest person on Earth with an estimated net worth of $226 billion, returned his focus from the risks of artificial intelligence to another new feature on his social media site X (formerly known as Twitter).

Musk announced that users will now be able to keep the record of the posts they have liked private, with a simple flip of the new ‘Hide Likes tab’ toggle.

‘You can now hide your likes,’ Musk posted to X, ‘but I recommend keeping them open and just using bookmarks for interesting posts.’

Musk introduced the ‘bookmarks’ feature, which he considers a ‘de facto silent like,’ after teasing the option months in advance of his purchase of Twitter last year.

From a complete overhaul of the verification system to the reinstatement of controversial accounts, Musk has made a number of questionable changes since he bought Twitter last year. In July, Musk made his biggest alteration yet, ditching the bird logo and rebranding the site X

Users responded to Musk’s announcement with jokes about the risqué content users might not want to be seen publicly approving of with their ‘likes.’ Above, users react to the new feature

From a complete overhaul of the verification system to the reinstatement of controversial accounts including Donald Trump and Andrew Tate, Musk has made a number of questionable changes since he bought out Twitter last year. 

This July, Musk made arguably his biggest alteration yet, ditching the bird logo and rebranding Twitter to X. 

The move was part of Musk’s wider effort to fold the site into his long-term ambitions for an ‘everything app’ to rival China’s WeChat, which mixes social media functionality with financial services, ecommerce and more.

Users responded to Musk’s ‘hide likes’ announcement today largely with jokes about the risqué content that users might not want to be seen publicly approving of.

‘Big day for the freaks & cheats on here,’ said one user, whose handle is @Alexeii__.

‘If you gotta hide your likes,’ said another, who goes by @simp4azh on the platform, ‘ima just assume you’re a weirdo.’