R.I.P. to Yet Another Form of Creeping on the Internet

A go-to resource for keeping tabs on exes and crushes online has disabled a very important feature. The yearners, piners and lurkers online who can’t help themselves were none too pleased.

This month, X announced that it was “making Likes private for everyone to better protect your privacy.” In practice, the change meant that although users would still be able to see posts they had liked, their list of liked posts would be hidden from other users. And by extension, neither could they see others’ likes.

It may be the biggest development in casual cybersleuthing since the so-called Following tab disappeared from Instagram in 2019. That feature, which revealed a user’s every move on the platform — whose photo she just double-tapped, which account he just followed — made it astonishingly easy to get to know someone’s interests.

Taken together, these recent privacy-minded changes are making it harder to snoop on the internet, frustrating those who may be struggling to let go of their romantic past or are obsessed with keeping tabs on current partners or even budding flings. As expected, jokes went flying as soon as the new likes policy on X was announced.

“Likes are private?” one user posted on X. “Now how am I supposed to see who my crush has a crush on??”

However, for those who had been the snooped upon, the news was warmly welcomed. “Likes are private now, she can’t stalk me anymore and jump to ridiculous conclusions,” another user wrote.