While social media influencers across Canada rely on the number of likes they receive on Instagram posts, they might not be able to for much longer.
Instagram, which is owned by Facebook Inc., has announced that it is considering permanently removing the number of likes that a post receives. What's more, they will run a test in Canada this week that will remove likes from all photos and videos across the platform.
woman liking photo / Shutterstock
Bloomberg reports that, "social media companies have come under fire for contributing to technology addiction and aiding the spread of abusive information." As a result, Instagram hopes to bring the focus back to content sharing, rather than likes. However, they also note that the test features aren't permanent, and the likes will still be visible to the poster.
The announcement was made before the F-8 developer conference, and follows similar logic as a prototype app launched by Twitter this year. The app makes likes and retweets less visible in threads, which brings the focus back to content rather than popularity.
