Facebook has a theory that hiding 'likes' will increase post volume, and Instagram is testing that theory

There's also a hypothesis within the company that hiding likes will increase the number of posts people make to the service, by making them feel less self-conscious when their posts don't get much engagement, three former employees told CNBC.

In recent years, as Instagram content became more polished and saturated with content from professional influencers, whom advertisers pay to promote particular products, the platform began to see more users delete or archive their original posts especially posts that did not receive many likes, one of the former employees said.

Facebook's growth and data science teams developed a hypothesis that getting rid of likes would make users feel less self-conscious when their posts don't receive much engagement, spurring them to post more.

Under the changes, users will no longer be able to compare their posts' like counts to their peers, but they'll still receive a notification for each individual like.

In addition, people on Instagram tend to mimic the behaviors of their close friends and family, so getting a few users to start posting original content more frequently could create a viral effect, the former employees told CNBC.

Removing likes takes away the peer pressure average users feel to post content that is as perfect as their most social-media savvy friend, a professional influencer or a celebrity, said Dylan Farella, director of social media at Talent Resources, a New York influencer marketing firm.

Getting rid of this mob mentality could reduce the engagement influencers see on their content, thus reducing the amount they can charge brands for promoting their products.

Instagram does not want to drive away influencers, but as the influencer ecosystems on rivals Snapchat, TikTok and Twitter are much less developed, Facebook knows they have few other services to go to, one of the former employees said.