Go ahead, ‘Like’ This Post about Facebook’s ‘Dislike’ Button
No, Facebook isn’t really going to give users the ability to “dislike” posts they hate on the social network, but Mark Zuckerberg did say the company is working on alternatives to the “Like” button.
“People have asked about the ‘dislike’ button for many years,” Zuckerberg said during a question-and-answer session streamed live on Facebook on Tuesday. “Today is the day that I actually get to say we are working on it.”
Don’t celebrate just yet. The ‘dislike’ button wouldn’t be for showing hate on another post about Taylor Swift or the Kardashians, or showing annoyance at another photo of one of your friends sucking face with her boyfriend. No, this button, that probably won’t be called a ‘dislike’ button, would be for showing empathy for posts that seem inappropriate to “Like”. You know those endless posts involving murder and rape on News24 that people “Like” and then readers ask why people are so silly? This button would be for those occasions.
The tool has no release date as yet, but Zuckerberg said Facebook was “very close” to having it ready for user testing. No need to be too hasty, Facebook. I don’t think users will be too impatient. Empathy isn’t humanity’s strong point.
We want a “Hate’ button to go along with that new middle finger emoji.
