You get a like notification, open the post, and can't find who it was. Or a post shows 12 likes and you can only account for 9. People call these “ghost likes”. They're not a glitch in your account: they come from how likes work on X (Twitter) now.
Likes on X are private
Since June 2024, likes on X are private. Everyone can still see how many likes a post has, but only the author of a post can see who liked it, and the Likes tab on a profile is visible only to its owner. So on someone else's post you see a number with no names behind it, and nobody can browse what you liked.
Why the count and the list don't match
- Unlikes. Someone liked, you got the notification, then they took it back.
- Accounts that left. When an account is deactivated, suspended or deleted, its likes go with it, sometimes a while after the notification.
- Spam clean-ups. X removes engagement from accounts it flags as spam or bots, so a few likes can vanish at once.
- Timing. Counts, notifications and lists don't always update at the same moment, so they can disagree for a bit.
Why likes suddenly disappear
A drop of a few likes on an older post is almost always one of the above: unlikes, closed accounts or a spam clean-up. It isn't a sign that you've been hidden or penalised, and there's nothing to fix.
What still shows who's really there
Likes are quiet and private; replies, reposts and quotes are public. A reply is the clearest sign of a real person who shows up for you, because anyone can see it. That's why our tools count replies, not likes.
- Ghost Index: if your followers were 100 people at a party, how many would come say hi?
- Thanks Card: the people who reply to you most, on one card to thank them.