Now she's elaborated more on the matter during an IG live session yesterday and further tweets. Her theories take on a more sinister angle. Nicki believes this move imposed by Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri is going to ruin a lot of businesses, especially small ones. She also believes it will negatively impact smaller, independent artists. Some consumers won’t purchase from smaller apparel businesses unfortunately, because likes are in fact a form of approval. She indicates that once Instagram removes LIKEs, the platform will target sponsored posts and become the middleman of sponsored post, just to get a percentage out of businesses and influencers. As a result, Instagram may be doing nothing more than profiting off sponsorship posts and especially the colossal impact others bring on Instagram. Cardi B also weighed in on the debate, saying the platform should be more concerned with the comments than the actual likes.
Earlier this week, Mosseri said:
“The idea is to try to ‘depressurize’ Instagram, make it less of a competition and give people more space to focus on connecting with people that they love, things that inspire them.”As well as:
“The idea is to try and reduce anxiety and social comparisons, specifically with an eye towards young people.”Here's what Nicki said about Instagram taking away likes on yesterday's Instagram LIVE:
“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.”Users will still be able to see likes on their end, but they will be hidden from public view. The social media giant already started testing out the new functionality in Italy, Brazil, Canada, Australia, and Japan. The test will begin rolling out next week for a portion of Stateside users.
I’m not posting on IG after this week cuz they removing the likes. Hmmmm what should I get into now? Think of all the time I’ll have with my new life— Mrs. Petty (@NICKIMINAJ) November 9, 2019
We are so easily pacified. Harriet would never. Y’all smoking dick if y’all think labels ain’t pissed about the level of power independent artists now have by way of IG. They all work TOGETHER. Unlike us... settling for crumbs. But memba when I spoke on other shit b4 it happened?— Mrs. Petty (@NICKIMINAJ) November 9, 2019
And who do you think is controlling those numbers? so that influencers can be out here “influencing” ppl to LIKE all the new stuff they bout to do? They gotta get y’all on board to spread the word. Just like how YouTube can take away or add a million views @ any given moment 😛 https://t.co/7Bqz0QbRvI— Mrs. Petty (@NICKIMINAJ) November 10, 2019
They took away your engagements in the first place by disrupting the algorithm. Then they boost it to show you how much better this new iPhone is. I mean how much better this new IG feature is. —- lemme guess, u don’t believe your iPhone messes up when the new iPhone comes out...— Mrs. Petty (@NICKIMINAJ) November 10, 2019