Facebook Is Testing Downvoting (But Don’t Call It a Dislike Button)

Facebook Is Testing a 'Downvote Button' (But Don't Call It a Dislike Button) Credit: TechCrunch
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It’s easy to come across inappropriate and offensive content on Facebook. But currently, there isn’t really an easy way to make your feelings known about such posts. Now, the social media giant has confirmed that has designed and is testing a new “downvote button”. However, it’s not a dislike button, as such.

With this feature, you’ll be able to flag public comments and posts that are irrelevant to the topic, misleading or inappropriate. It’s not clear when the feature will roll out to users, though.

At the moment, only a small fraction of American users are able to use the function. According to TechCrunch, it has been designed as a “lightweight way for people to provide a signal to Facebook that a comment is inappropriate, uncivil, or misleading”.

Over the course of the platform’s lifetime, users have been able to like posts and comments. And when people complained about the lack of a dislike button, Facebook integrated reactions.

They’re basically emotions that allow you to convey the emotions you experience when you see a certain post, although people still haven’t been happy.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been vocal about his opposition to the idea of a dislike button.

Speaking about the topic in 2015, he said: “We didn’t want to just build a Dislike button because we don’t want to turn Facebook into a forum where people are voting up or down on people’s posts.”

The billionaire believes that such a feature would have a negative impact on Facebook. He added: “That doesn’t seem like the kind of community we want to create.”

This news comes as the social networking platform continues to battle with fake news. Last month, Zuckerberg wrote in a post: “There’s too much sensationalism, misinformation and polarisation in the world today.”

“Social media enables people to spread information faster than ever before, and if we don’t specifically tackle these problems, then we end up amplifying them.”

“That’s why it’s important that News Feed promotes high quality news that helps build a sense of common ground.”

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