Instagram gets rid of likes - consideration for user well-being or attack on influencers?

The other users - including advertisers - will be left guessing about post statistics. An updated news feed without a like counter is already available in 7 countries: Canada, Italy, Brazil, Ireland, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

The official reason for the change? User well-being: according to a popular theory, the level of approval on social media directly affects mental health. The company claims that their update will help users to focus more on the content they are posting, rather than its effect on other users.

However, members of the community believe that this concern for user well-being is just a facade, and Instagram actually wants to limit earnings made by bloggers and influencers and thus increase revenue from targeted ads. Meanwhile, influencers are complaining about violations of their rights. It's quite likely that the company hopes to make a dent in the influencer industry and related industries - according to a recent study released by Cheq, 'brands spend more than $1 billion annually on collaboration with influencers with fake followers.'