By: Axios
Nov 12, 2019
Several of the biggest social media platforms are beginning to test changes that cut down on scorekeeping, discourage harassment and aim to improve users’ well-being.
Why it matters: The unwinding of features such as public “like” counts could have a major impact on the multi-billion dollar businesses of social media companies, as well as the millions of brands and creators that rely on those features to fuel their own businesses.
Driving the news: Instagram will begin testing the removal of public “like” counts on its platform in the U.S. this week, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said last week at a Wired event.
- The U.S. test follows similar public tests of removing “like” counts in other countries, like Canada, Australia, Japan, Italy and Brazil.
- Instagram’s parent Facebook began rolling out a similar test to hide public “like” counts on its platform in Australia in September.