This could have an impact on influencers.

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Following on from testing in other countries earlier in the year - Instagram has begun to test hiding the ‘like’ counter on posts. As part of the test, only the post’s creator will be able to see the number of likes. 

It’s part of a wider campaign to address the negative impact on health and wellbeing that social media can have on its users - the idea is to make content seem “less of a competition”, whilst reducing anxiety and social comparison.

The move has been polarising - it’s been broadly welcomed by users and mental health advocates, whilst several high profile influencers and celebrities have been critical of the change.

Assuming the test is rolled out across the platform, it will impact on the metrics that many influencers, brands and artists like to utilise. We predict that the overall number of ‘likes’ will fall slightly - but this shouldn’t matter. There are other, more valuable metrics and forms of engagement worth analysing - and all this data will still be available.