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Instagrams CEO Adam Mosseri confirmed the plan to hide Instagram Likes today at the Wired25 conference. The Social mEdia Executive stated, “We have to see how it affects how people feel about the platform, how it affects how they use the platform, how it affects the creator ecosystem.” The plan is scheduled to be executed beginning next week in the United States where the new initiative will be tested. Instagram had already began testing the new initiative back in April in Canada, and then expanded to Brazil, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand in July.

We will make decisions that hurt the business if they help people’s well-being and health,” 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 the people they love and things that inspire them.” In short, the purpose of this new expansion is  to “reduce anxiety” and “reduce social comparison.” Speculations already growing around the new take, the question arises whether it’ll do more harm than justice to the influencers and the creative ecosystem. During the talk, which also involved actor and CEO Tracie Ellis Ross, Mosseri touched on the topic of the growing shopping industry within the platform and alternatives that will provide new ways of revenue for the Influencers whom have made careers of the tool.