Facebook users have been calling for a "Dislike" button for years...
It seemed like Facebook had come up with a compromise when the social media giant introduced reaction buttons for statuses — including
Sad, Angry, Whoa and Love. However, none of these emojis had the sweet, unambiguous sharpness that would come with a dedicated "Dislike" button.
Throughout 2018, Facebook has tested a feature very like Reddit's system of "upvoting" and "downvoting" comments, meaning that users can unambiguously show their disapproval for comments on the site. Anyone looking at the comment will also be immediately able to see how many users have "upvoted" and "downvoted" it. The downvoting symbol is a downward pointing arrow, which we can all agree does the job of showing disapproval.
As it stands, Facebook has only tested this feature in parts of New Zealand and Australia, but if it proves popular then we can surely expect to see it rolled out across the globe. Whether it indeed does prove popular is another matter entirely.
The new feature has been noted by
Ben Slater on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/iambenslater/status/990544588774363136?tfw_creator=mashable&tfw_site=mashable&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmashable.com%2F2018%2F04%2F30%2Ffacebook-downvote%2F
It's also worth noting that in the tests, there has been no option to upvote or downvote statuses themselves, only the comments beneath them.
If nothing else, we imagine that this will make for great sport in the JOE.ie comment section.
