Facebook to hide number ‘likes’ on posts; here’s why

Bhubaneswar:  Some Facebook users will soon no longer see the number of likes, reactions and video views on the posts of others. The move is aimed at improving the mental health of users of the social networking site.

The new Facebook trial kicked off in Australia on Friday.

FB officials said likes will be private and only visible to the post’s owner. It is seen that metrics like shares, follower counts and the likes affect the users’ mental health. Battling for likes and comparing the numbers with others have transformed the social media into a form of contest, which is taking a toll on the mental health of teens.

Facebook Australia’s director of policy Mia Garlick said,  “We’ve had really positive feedback from a lot of anti-bullying groups and mental health organisations that we work with. It really is just taking that number out of the equation, so that people can focus on the quality of their interactions and the quality of the content rather than on the number of likes or reactions,” Garlick said.

Earlier in April, Facebook owned Intagram began a similar removal of likes test in Canada earlier this year. This began in Canada but then was expanded to six other countries.