Last week, it was reported that Instagram would begin hiding "like counts" starting this week in the US, but according to Tech Crunch, that has now expanded to a global change.
"Starting today, we’re expanding our test of private like counts to the rest of the world beyond Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Italy, and New Zealand. If you’re in the test, you’ll no longer see the total number of likes and views on photos and videos posted to Feed unless they’re your own. While the feedback from early testing has been positive, this is a fundamental change to Instagram, and so we’re continuing our test to learn more from our global community," an Instagram spokesperson told Techcrunch Thursday.
A number of celebrities have chimed in on the move.
According to Rap-Up.com, Nicki Minaj expressed her feeling on IG live saying, “So basically no, Instagram is about to take everyone’s likes simply because they don’t want you to go off on the side, forming all sorts of businesses and being able to say, ‘I get this amount of likes,’ and charging brands. They want you to have to pay them. If you pay them, then that’s why we have all these ‘sponsored’ Instagram posts… They had to shuffle it real quick to let you know, you ain’t the boss.”