Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) – A tech bug in Instagram caused the number of likes on the platform to be briefly hidden from some users on Tuesday, after the company mistakenly expanded a long-term test of the feature.
A spokesperson for Facebook, which owns Instagram, told CNN: “We are testing a new experiment that hides likes on posts. We added more people to the test today inadvertently. As soon as possible”.
Several users reported seeing the change on their personal accounts on Tuesday, with the number of likes replaced by “and others”.
Instagram has been testing limited to this change for years, and in 2019, the company said it would start removing the number of likes from a limited number of accounts in Canada. The company did not provide a timeline of when it expected the widespread cloaking of likes.
While followers will not be able to see the total number of likes the post has received, the account owner can still see them, according to Instagram. Users can click to see a full list of accounts that have “liked” the post, but they will not be able to see a number highlighting how many people have liked the post.
And “Instagram” described the move as a way to help reduce pressure to increase likes that are often used as a measure of popularity, and appear in the form of a heart on the platform.
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