Instagram to test hiding 'likes' to make posting 'less of a competition'
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Instagram is to start letting UK users hide the number of likes their posts receive as part of efforts to make the social network "less of a competition".
On Wednesday the tech giant launched a global trial which will also allow users to hide the number of likes other people's posts in their feed have garnered.
The like button has previously been labelled “toxic” and criticised for pitting young users against each other.
Both Instagram and its parent company Facebook have buttons that allow people to indicate if they ‘like’ posts, with the total number of likes displayed for all users to see.
In 2019, Facebook, which owns Instagram, first began trialling a feature that allowed users to hide the like counts on other users' posts. However, the trial only ran in a select few countries that did not include the UK.
The new trial will allow a "small percentage" of users to use both new hide features.
In recent years Instagram and Facebook have come under increasing pressure over the impact likes can have on users.
A survey by the Royal Society for Public Health found in 2019 that the like button was considered by young people to be the most “toxic” feature of social media.
In that same year, Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, said he was looking at ways to “depressurise” the social network for young people and “make it less of a competition”.
Following the launch of the trial, a spokesman for Instagram said the company would start rolling out similar test features to Facebook later this year.
They added: “In 2019, we started hiding like counts for a small group of people to understand if it lessens some pressure when posting to Instagram.
“Some people found this beneficial but some still wanted to see like counts so they could track what’s popular.
“We’re testing a new option that lets you decide which experience is best for you – whether that’s choosing not to see like counts on anyone else’s posts, turning them off for your own posts, or keeping the original experience, and seeing like counts.”
