Instagram Now Conceals Preferences for Clients from Seven Nations Around the globe

After testing its new interface in Canada, the social network Instagram is extending the thing to six other countries. In this version, the "likes" of the photos and the "views" of the videos are only visible to the author.

Will social networks be “like” kingdoms for a long time to come? Wednesday, in a publication on its site, the Instagram photo platform has announced that it will test a new version of its interface in six other countries. From now on, Instagram users in Australia, Brazil, and even Italy will no longer see the number of “likes” under each photo and video. This counter will be replaced by a small sentence, "loved by such and such and other people". Only the author of the content will be able to see the exact number of “likes”, by pressing this little message that has appeared. The change applies to all images, whether in the newsfeed, on the browser version, or directly on user profiles. Canada has already been testing this watered-down version of Buy Instagram followers for several months.

 A few months ago, when the platform launched public testing in Canada, it made the same speech. And this is not the first time that Instagram has tried to reduce the importance of “likes” on its turf. It is even for this reason that in 2016, Kevin Nystroms, co-founder of the social network, launched the stories, these short videos which made the popularity of the platform and on which we cannot put a mention "I like " "Moving away from the pressure of the 'like' counter was the impetus to [create this novelty]" explained the man in 2016, to the specialized media TechCrunch.

A more general problem

A pillar of social networks since their inception, the "like" is no longer popular, accused of hurting the esteem of Internet users and encouraging virility at all costs. According to a study published in 2016, 42% of people like a message to report that they have seen it and not because they find it interesting, 40% use it to maintain a link with the author, and 16% like by imitation. In other words, the "like" has multiple meanings and does not necessarily mean that content is worth watching. The most beloved photo in Instagram history symbolizes this observation. It is an egg, on a white background, "liked" more than 53 million times. At the start of the year, a surfer launched himself as a bet to dethrone the most popular old image of the social network, that of model and influencer Kylie Jenner (18 million "likes"). For this, it mobilized Internet users. In just nine days, the goal was reached.

Other platforms are following Instagram. Since the beginning of the year, the Twitter platform has been testing a more minimalist interface, dubbed "twitter". The new version displays messages and their responses more simply, with an organization in the form of a staircase. But above all, “likes” and shares are hidden by default, and you have to press on a particular publication to reveal the information. What reduces the power of the "like" also on Twitter.