Instagram’s testing a new privacy element, with the capacity to hide your like activity from other users, if you choose.
As you can see in this example, shared by social media expert Matt Navarra, some IG users are now being alerted with a pop-up, notifying them that they can hide their likes from whomever they choose.
The new option would enable you to hide your like activity from non-followers, or limit visibility to only close friends. Or you could opt to hide your like activity for everyone, if you really don’t want people to know the stuff that you’re into in the app.
That would provide an extra level of reassurance for users, which could help to make them feel more comfortable engaging in the app, while it would also align with the broader push towards more privacy, which has seen WhatsApp gain more traction in Western markets of late.
X offers similar, with X Premium (formerly Twitter Blue) subscribers now able to hide their checkmark, if they choose, along with their likes, which, in X’s case, may help users feel more comfortable in supporting different creators, without any potential stigma or association as a result.
X owner Elon Musk has even gone a step further, by offering to pay the legal bills of anybody that’s been unfairly treated by their employer due to posting or liking something on X.
If you were unfairly treated by your employer due to posting or liking something on this platform, we will fund your legal bill.
No limit.
Please let us know.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 6, 2023
In Elon’s case, that aligns more with his free speech approach, and facilitating more “hardcore” conversations in the app, though it could also be applicable on Instagram, where people might not necessarily want people to know what they’re engaging with, for whatever reason.
So if you’re creeping on somebody’s profile that you maybe shouldn’t, or you’re engaging with somewhat controversial takes that would likely be of interest to the people that are paying your salary, you could mask that activity from public view, and rest assured that no one’s going to uncover your questionable activity and use it against you.
Well, unless you comment on a profile, or you follow them, those actions will still out you all the same. But if you’re preferred mode of engagement is just a subtle like here and there, maybe, this is for you.