Instagram’s distinguished ‘influencers’ panicked after a technical glitch hid ‘likes’ from posts by many users, in what the platform called a ‘bug’ while trying to end ‘likes’ forever.
While Instagram enlightened the move was a mistake – saying it was “Testing a new experience to hide likes in Feed posts”, but that “Accidentally added more people to the test” due to a “mistake” – the site’s blue checks were no less disturbed, flooding Twitter to mourn the loss of its ‘likes’.
“If Instagram thinks I’m not going to manually count my likes, they don’t know how much validation I need from strangers on the internet,” a user joked.
Texas took off the masks, Instagram took off the tastes … please, sir, I can’t take it anymore 😭😩😩
– RAVEN ELYSE (@RavenElyseTV) March 3, 2021
Instagram has been discussing sending the public tastes in the dodo style since 2019, launching a similar website on a limited trial basis in several countries, starting with Canada and expanding to Australia, Brazil, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand and , finally, in November 2019, in the United States. CEO Adam Mosseri explained that the aim of the change was to improve users’ emotional well-being and self-esteem, especially among younger people.
“It’s about young people,” Mosseri said in 2019. “The idea is to try to ‘depressurize’ Instagram, make it less competitive and give people more space to focus on connecting with the people they love, things that inspire them.”
Although many renowned Instagrammers criticized the decision, some citing more practical reasons in addition to pure vanity, some welcomed him as a “progressive” and “Humanitarian” improvement of the site.
So Instagram got rid of likes and I honestly feel like this is the most mentally progressive thing they’ve done all year
– Demi Grace (@IamDemiGrace) March 3, 2021
so instagram got rid of the likes and I think it was one of the most humanitarian movements they could have done. a world where children grow up measuring their lives by taste has never pleased me.
– 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝. (@ImanEurope) March 3, 2021
so i think i’m the only person who is happy that instagram got likes
– gh (@GabbieHanna) March 3, 2021
One observer tried to calm the angry influencers, explaining that although tastes may eventually be hidden from public view, they will still appear on a private panel, allowing engagement-minded users to rate the popularity of their posts according to their heart’s content.
Why do people keep saying that because Instagram removed likes, now influencers can’t make money? 🤦🏻♂️ all influencers have a panel with their insights / analysis. So, you just capture an image of them and send it to that sponsor.
– BEN BALLER ™ (@BENBALLER) March 3, 2021
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