Elon Musk Announces Changes to Social Media Platform X
Since becoming the owner of social media platform X, Elon Musk has wasted no time in announcing significant changes to the platform, particularly focusing on its design.
In a series of tweets on Wednesday evening, March 6, Musk revealed that the counts of “likes,” “retweets,” and favorites will no longer be visible on the main feed of the platform, which was previously known as Twitter. The rationale behind this decision is to give the social network a cleaner and less cluttered appearance.
The news was first shared by DogeDesigner, also known as @cbdoge, a prominent user of X and a supporter of Musk. DogeDesigner mentioned that users will soon need to click on a post to view these metrics, with Musk confirming the plan by stating that only view counts will be displayed.
Musk expressed his excitement about the upcoming changes, responding to a user by saying, “Very clean. I’m dying to do this for a year.”
The new format for X will involve placing the view count, the only visible metric for post engagement, in the top right corner of the post next to the timestamp. To engage with a post in this new layout, users will need to swipe right to reply and left to favorite.
Following Musk’s announcements, there has been some backlash from internet users and regular X users, with some calling for the changes to be put to a popular vote on the platform.
As Musk continues to make alterations to X, it remains to be seen how users will respond to the modifications and whether they will have a positive impact on the platform’s user experience.