‘I’ve put my blood, sweat and tears into this’: Influencer lashes out as Instagram hides likes

"It’s actually a sad day for those who have Instagram as a job."

An Australian social influencer has shared her anger at Instagram hiding likes from view. The platform is trialling a feature that hides how many times a post has been liked. It's only been rolled out in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Brazil and Japan so far but could soon be introduced around the globe. Instagram says the change is aimed at taking pressure off users to rack up likes on their photos - but it could have a big affect on people who use social media for their work. Melbourne-based Mikaela Testa, who currently has over 44,000 followers on the app, has said the move is causing "real damage."

"If you think this is okay you can f**k off, it’s actually a sad day for those who have Instagram as a job," she wrote in a Facebook post this week.

"Regardless of what you may think Instagram is a REAL job and those in the industry have worked hard to get where they’re at.

"It’s people that aren’t even in the industry that think it’s a f**king joke. It’s not, it’s real damage out here."

Hiding likes is a way for Instagram to control engagement and make money rather than protect users' mental health, she continued.

"I’ve put my blood, sweat and tears into this for it to be ripped away, it’s not just me suffering too, it’s every brand and business I know.

"Instagram isn’t even doing this for mental health they’re just doing it so they can control all engagement so more businesses run their adverts through Instagram essentially giving them more $, they don’t care about your feelings."

Mikaela has said that she makes thousands a month from the app. Instagram has insisted that the new feature won't affect businesses as you can still see the number of likes on a post by clicking on it.