(CNN, WIAT) — Posting on Instagram can come with a rush of validation when “likes” from friends and strangers come pouring in. But those “likes” will soon be hidden from many users.
In an attempt to reduce competitive pressure on the platform, Instagram will hide “likes” for some U.S. users starting this week. Instagram has already tested the concept in several other countries.
“Likes,” or how many hearts a post gets, will disappear from Instagram’s feed and user profile pages.
A user can still see how many “likes” they’ve received, but their followers won’t know the count.
Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri says the move is to depressurize the social media platform. He says he wants to make Instagram less of a competition, particularly for younger users.
Some users believe that this change will be great in the long run.
There are some influencers, however, that are opposed the change.
Rapper Nicki Minaj tweeted last week that she will no longer be using the platform because of the change. Minaj believes that the change will hurt independent artists who try to use social media as a way to see how many people like their music.
Cardi B shared a video on Instagram TV voicing her opinions on the removal of “likes,” saying that Instagram should remove comments instead. Cardi believes that Instagram started to get “a little nasty” once users “were allowed to “like” comments or to reply back to somebody’s comments.”
“If anything is affecting Instagram right now, I really feel it’s the way that the comments have been done or have been changing these past few years. I feel like people have been…starting the craziest arguments, been starting to race-bait all because of comments because they want to get to the top. They want to get the most reactions,” Cardi B said in her Instagram TV video.
