“We are testing a new experience to hide likes on … posts”, a spokesman for the Facebook (FB), owner of Instagram, told CNN Business. “We unintentionally added more people to the test today, which was a bug – we are fixing this problem and restoring those people’s counts as soon as possible.”
Several users reported seeing the change in their profiles on Tuesday, with the number of likes replaced by the phrase “and others”.
Instagram has been doing limited testing of this change for years – in 2019, the company said it would start removing the number of likes from a limited number of accounts in Canada. Instagram has not provided a timeline for when it expects hidden likes to spread widely.
Although followers can’t see the total number of likes a post received, the account owner can still, Instagram said at the time. Users could click to see a complete list of accounts that liked the post, but they would not be able to see a number highlighting how many people liked it.
Instagram framed the change as a way to help reduce the pressure to accumulate likes on the platform. Likes, which appear as hearts on Instagram, are often used as a measure of popularity.
– Kaya Yurieff of CNN Business contributed to this report.