It started in Canada in May and is now spreading. Immediately after the announcement of the changes made to the photo-sharing platform in April, Instagram began hiding the total number of likes posted on Canadian posts as evidence. The design change has allowed account holders to know how much love they have, but no one else will be able to tell. How this change has been received is still unknown, but Instagram is currently rolling out its testing to six more countries: Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Ireland, and Brazil. Starting July 18, similar totals will be removed from posts on main feeds, profiles, and permalink pages. Users will be notified of the change via a message at the top of their feed.
Users will be notified of the changes via a message | Image: Instagram (Image credit: Instagram)
Say goodbye
Instagram has recognized that online bullying is a significant problem on the platform and has implemented two new tools to combat this issue. The victim of the murder of a teenager posted images of her body on Instagram; they were online for hours before being taken down. According to Mia Garlick, Director of Public Policy for Facebook and Instagram in Australia and New Zealand, this change is aimed at making the platform less competitive. "We hope this test dissipates the number of likes a message will receive, so you can focus on sharing the things you love," she said in a statement. . While the average user isn't overly concerned, this change could have a significant impact on influencers. However, Instagram claims that the tests will have no impact on businesses or influencers, no changes will be made to measurement tools like Insights and Ads Manager, where stats like "Likes" and "Engagement" will continue to be tracked. .