What X Changed on June 12, 2024
Before June 2024, likes on Twitter (now X) were public. Anyone could open the Likes tab of a public profile and scroll through every post that account had liked, and the list of people who liked a post was visible to everyone.
On June 12, 2024, X switched likes to private for all accounts, with no setting to change. Since then:
- Your Likes tab is visible only to you. Other people no longer see a Likes tab on your profile.
- The author of a post sees who liked it. If you like someone's post, that person can see your like.
- The like count stays public. Everyone sees how many likes a post has, but not the list of the other people who liked it.
In short, likes went from a public list attached to your profile to something visible only to you and to the author of each post you liked.
What Is Still Visible After the Change
Private likes reduced casual browsing of your activity, but they did not remove your likes. Here is what remains:
- Authors see your likes on their posts. Liking a post from a colleague, a client, a brand or a controversial account is still visible to that account.
- Likes given before June 2024 were public for years. They may have been captured in screenshots, in web archives such as the Wayback Machine, or by third-party scraping tools. Those copies were not touched by the change.
- Your likes stay in your X data export. The archive you download from X includes your like history.
- The like count on each post stays public. Your like is still counted in that number until you remove it.
Why Clearing Old Likes Still Matters
If likes are private, why delete them? Because private is not the same as gone. The reasons that still hold:
- Authors still see them. Every like remains visible to the person or brand who wrote the post.
- Old likes may already have been captured. Anything you liked before June 2024 was public, and deleting it now at least stops it from living on in your account.
- X uses your likes for personalization. Your like history feeds the algorithm that picks what you see and the ads you are shown. Clearing it resets part of that profile.
- Image changes. A job search, a new role or a rebrand is a natural moment to clean up years of engagement that no longer reflects who you are.
- Policies can change again. Your likes stay in your data archive, and they could resurface if X changes its rules again.
For most people the goal is not to hide one embarrassing like. It is to stop carrying a decade of engagement that no longer matches their current views or professional positioning.
How to Audit Your Likes Before Acting
Since only you can see your Likes tab, the audit is simple: log in, open your profile, click Likes and scroll back. Look for these categories:
- Politically charged or polarizing posts that do not reflect how you want to be perceived
- Likes on accounts that have since become controversial, even if the original post looked harmless at the time
- Personal or intimate content you liked during a different phase of life
- Jokes or memes that are easy to misread out of context
- Professional complaints about clients, employers or industries you still work in
The audit is about awareness: it helps you choose between a selective cleanup (specific date ranges or keywords) and a full wipe of your likes history. The Likes tab does not always reach your oldest likes; for those, X Cleaner Pro can import your X archive, which is read locally and never uploaded. For more on prioritizing, see the likes deletion guide.
Bulk-Deleting Your Likes with X Cleaner
X Cleaner is a Chrome extension with a free plan. There is no account to create and no API key: it acts through your logged-in X session, your X password and session never leave your browser, and your likes are read locally and never sent to our servers.
Here is how the likes deletion works in practice:
- Open X.com while logged in: the X Cleaner panel appears
- Scan your likes (about 1,000 per pass, with a Load more button for the next batch); scanning is free
- Set the scope: all likes, or (with Pro) likes before a date or matching a keyword
- Start the cleanup: X Cleaner unlikes about one per second, pausing automatically when X rate-limits, with a live ETA
- Pause, resume or stop at any time; an interrupted cleanup picks up where it left off
Hundreds of likes go in a few minutes, thousands in about an hour, depending on X's limits. Many deletion services connect to your account through OAuth from their own servers, and some ask you to upload your archive. X Cleaner works in your own browser instead; if you use the Pro archive import, the file is read locally and never uploaded.
X Cleaner also handles tweet deletion and retweet removal from the same panel, so you can run several cleanup jobs in one session.
Don't Stop at Likes: What Else to Clean
Likes are now private, but most of your other activity on X is not. If you are cleaning up your account, review the rest at the same time:
- Old tweets and replies: these are still public on your profile. X Cleaner's tweet deletion tool removes them at the same pace, with date filters (Pro) so you can keep recent content and clear the old backlog.
- Retweets: every retweet appears on your profile as an endorsement. The retweet cleanup feature removes them without touching your original posts.
- DMs: not public, but stored by X. Deleting them (Pro) removes the conversations from your inbox; the other person keeps their copy.
- Bookmarks: private, and can be cleared in bulk with Pro.
The practical approach is one session: likes first, then tweets and retweets, with the X tab left open.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Twitter likes public in 2026?
No. On June 12, 2024, X made likes private for all accounts. The Likes tab on a profile is now visible only to its owner. The author of a post can still see who liked it, and the like count on each post stays public, but other people can no longer browse the list of posts you have liked.
Who can still see my likes on X?
You see your full Likes tab. The author of a post you liked can see that you liked it. Everyone else only sees the total like count on that post, not the list of people behind it. Your likes also remain in your X data export.
Were my old likes exposed before the change?
Yes. Until June 2024, likes were public: anyone could open your Likes tab. Likes from that period may have been captured in screenshots, web archives such as the Wayback Machine, or third-party scraping tools. Making likes private did not erase those copies.
Why delete likes if they are now private?
Because private is not the same as gone. Authors still see your likes on their posts, older likes may already have been captured while they were public, X uses your likes to personalize your feed and ads, and your likes stay in your data archive, where they could resurface if X changes its policy again. A job search or a rebrand is also a good moment to start clean.
Can I unlike thousands of tweets at once?
Yes. X Cleaner unlikes about one post per second through your logged-in X session, with automatic pauses when X rate-limits. With Pro (the free plan is limited to 10 per day), 10,000 likes take several hours, in one or more sessions; the extension picks up where it left off. You can leave it running in a background tab while an X tab stays open.
Does X Cleaner require my password or an API key?
No. X Cleaner is a Chrome extension that works within your existing logged-in X session, with no OAuth and no API access. Your X password and session never leave your browser, and your likes are read locally and never sent to our servers; we only store what is needed to run your license.
Will my deleted likes stay deleted?
Once you unlike a post, the like is removed from your account: it disappears from your Likes tab and the post's like count drops by one. X may refuse to remove some very old likes; the extension flags them as “could not be removed” instead of counting them. Copies captured before June 2024 by screenshots, web archives or scraping tools are outside X's control and stay where they are.
Can I delete only likes from a specific date range?
Yes. X Cleaner Pro includes date, keyword and media filters, so you can keep recent likes and remove older history that no longer reflects your views or professional positioning.