Social media giant Instagram is removing a feature from its app which has been described by some as "creepy" and stalker-like".
The Following tab, which is accessed under the Likes section, allowed users to see the activity of the people they were following, such as which photos they were liking, who they were following and what they were commenting.
It was initially intended to be a way of discovering new accounts and interests, but since the addition of the Explore feature, it has been seldom used for that purpose.
Instagram's head of product Vishal Shah told Buzzfeed that the Following tab was not frequently used at all, and that the company suspected that many didn't even know it existed.
This had the potential to lead to users being shocked when their supposedly-private Instagram activity was suddenly revealed as being quite public.
"People didn’t always know that their activity is surfacing," Mr Shah said.
"So you have a case where it’s not serving the use case you built it for, but it’s also causing people to be surprised when their activity is showing up"
Some users had reported that the Following tab was missing some months ago, but the change will become permanent and universal this week when the app is updated.
Earlier this year, Instagram also changed its app to hide the number of likes a post had received, amid concerns it was fostering an unhealthy obsession with receiving likes among some groups.
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