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Social platform Instagram is trialling hiding likes on Australian user's accounts from today in a move to "depressurise" the platform. 

Individual users will still be able to see how many likes their posts receives, however this number will not be shown to others. Instead, a username "and others" will be shown. 

Business accounts and influencers will still be able to access the insights page to see how many likes their post has received. 

Australia is the second region to be tested with Canadian users experiencing the hidden likes feature in May this year. 

Facebook and Instagram ANZ director of public policy Mia Garlick said the trial is about removing the competition from the platform. 

"We know that people come to Instagram to express themselves and to be creative and follow their passions. And we want to make sure it's not a competition.

"We want to make sure that people are not feeling like they should like a particular post because it's getting a lot of likes, and that they shouldn't feel like they're sharing solely to get likes. 

"We want to see if this actually improves the experience, and depressurises Instagram," she said. 

The move comes after Instagram introduced new anti-cyber bullying features including an AI-powered tool to flag potentially hurtful or inappropriate comments to commenters before they're posted, as well as a 'restrict' feature which allows victims of bullying to pre-approve comments from restricted users as well as not notifying bullies when victims have seen direct messages. 

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