Instagram glitch: What happened to some users’ likes?
Social media platform Instagram mistakenly ‘hid’ likes for certain users on Tuesday 2 March. Here is what happened.
Many Instagram users were baffled when scrolling through the platform and seeing their number of likes on posts replaced with the phrase “and others” on Tuesday 2 March.
Within an hour of the major change, Instagram began to trend on Twitter as people were questioning if this was the permanent feature that the platform had previously announced.
However, this was just a mishap that apparently occurred due to the platform unintentionally adding more people to the test which was actually a bug in the system.
“We’ve been testing a new experience to hide likes on Feed posts. We unintentionally added more people to the test today, which was a bug — we’re fixing this issue and restoring like counts to those people as soon as possible,” wrote the Instagram Comms page on twitter.
THE ISSUE IS FIXED
Two hours after explaining the issue that took place the Instagram Comms page on Twitter updated users saying that the issue is fixed and how to get their feed back to normal.
“This issue has now been fixed. Pull down to refresh your feed and your likes should restore – thanks for your patience,” was posted on the account.
INSTAGRAM REMOVING LIKES
In 2019 the platform announced that they plan on removing the number of likes that shows on each user’s posts, from a limited number of people in Canada. The platform has not yet provided users with a proposed date for when this will take place throughout the platform.
This change involves only the number being affected and not the concept of likes as a whole.
Although some users were shocked, others seemed to like the change.
The change is being brought in to create a more comfortable environment for users.
“About creating a less pressurized environment where people feel comfortable expressing themselves,” said CEO Adam Mosseri according to Heavy.
“We will make decisions that hurt the business if they help people’s well-being and health,” he also mentioned.
WHAT WOULD THE PLATFORM LOOK LIKE WITHOUT LIKES?
According to Buzz Feed followers would not see the total amount of likes on a post on their Instagram feeds or when visiting a users profile. The owner of the account can still see the number of likes the post received and the people who liked the post. However, account owners would need to tap through a post to view the metrics.