Instagram will start removing public 'like' counts for some US users as part of an experiment: Report

It was in April this year, that Instagram was **first reported to be working on removing likes from its platform** . In July, Instagram had officially come out to say that it’s “running a test that hides the total number of likes and video views for some people” in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Japan, and New Zealand. [caption id=“attachment_7478291” align=“alignnone” width=“1024”]  Representational Image.[/caption] Now, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri has announced at the Wired25 conference that it will start testing hide likes in the US as soon as next week.

WATCH: Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri announces that the platform will start hiding likes for US audiences starting next week. It's the latest step in Instagram’s quest to become the safest place on the internet. https://t.co/BGkMG57rdk #WIRED25 pic.twitter.com/WNTyAPVhaD

— WIRED (@WIRED) November 9, 2019

In tests that have been rolled out in other countries so far, likes are hidden from public posts in the Feed, on the web, and in profiles. However, the owners of the accounts will still be able to see how many likes they got on a post — it’s only other people that won’t be able to. When Instagram first announced about removing likes from the platform, a spokesperson from the company had said in a statement, “We want your followers to focus on what you share, not how many likes your posts get.”