Musk plans sweeping changes for X with like, repost and reply buttons vanishing from user feeds
Elon Musk has announced a striking change for X, the social network formerly known as Twitter. He wants to completely remove the like, repost and reply buttons from the feed. Users will have to swipe a tweet left or right to see these interactions. Despite unanimously negative reactions, Musk is sticking with his decision.
Since Musk took over Twitter in October 2022, the app has already undergone major changes. The name was changed to X and the look and content also underwent a major overhaul.
Now so-called engagement buttons on X from the feed indicating the number of likes, reposts and replies are to disappear. In the feed, only the posts themselves will be visible. The only counter that will remain is that of the number of views, which will move to the top right corner.
In a video shared by Aaron Perris of MacRumors on X, it shows what this will look like. It shows users can swipe left to like and right to open a menu with options to comment, repost or quote. Despite the wave of criticism, Musk is fully behind the change. He responded to a critical comment about the video with: “It’s great. Just swipe left to like and right to comment.”
The changes will serve to discourage a user trend called ‘engagement farming’ where users ask questions designed to enflame opinion and thus promote their account through likes and retweets indicating your opinion.
EU pressure
In other news, X will receive a formal warning from the EU for failing to address hate speech and disinformation, something it is required to do under the new Digital Services Act (DSA), according to Bloomberg. The European Commission could fine X up to 6% of its total revenue.
X is just one of many major technology companies the European Union has investigated under its new Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act. It has already spoken out against Apple, Meta and Microsoft for anti-competitive practices.
According to the European Commission website, the Digital Services Act allows users to report illegal content such as hate speech, and platforms must take action on it.
It is well known that Musk is not in favour of moderation, calling himself a ‘free speech absolutist’. However this approach has not gone down well in Europe where consumer protections are more robust than in the US.
The warning is expected in late July, just before the summer recess.
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