Instagram boss Adam Mosseri says like counts might go private

Instagram head Adam Mosseri said it might start hiding likes as it tries "rethinking the whole experience" of the social media site and fight bullying. He talked to CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King about this new approach -- which prioritizes "well-being" -- in a Wednesday interview with CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King.
 
"One of the ideas we're currently experimenting with is (making) like counts private, for instance, because we don't want Instagram to be such a competition," Mosseri said. "We want it to be a place where people spend more of their energy connecting with the people that they love and the things that they care about."
 
In this test, he said, you can see the number of likes on your own post, but others can't.
 
"So you don't have to do all this social comparison," Mosseri said.
 
You might also start seeing a warning notifications before and after you send a harmful or offensive comment.
 
"We don't block you. We just say, 'Hey, this looks like it might be unkind, do you want to undo it?'" he told King. "This is in testing. And we've seen the people -- not everyone, a minority but a meaningful minority -- are changing in what they say and saying nicer things."
 
The interview also touched upon his experience taking over from Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Kriege, who departed last September.
 
"I've been really surprised and heartened by how positive people's reactions within Instagram have been to me … some of them are a bit of a wait and see, 'who's this guy, what's he about?' And I think that's fair, too. But I was expecting more tension than I've actually received."
 
He also acknowledged that the site doesn't currently have a policy against deepfakes, after King referred to one featuring Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

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