Thumbs down: Facebook to trial dislike button
Social media giant Facebook has bowed to longstanding pressure by trialing a ‘dislike’ button for the first time, though not on its most popular platform used by nearly two billion users.
The long-awaited button has been rolled out to a limited number of people in the social network’s Messenger app that is linked to the main Facebook platform but only boasts half the number of users, or approximately one billion accounts.
Facebook had long ignored repeated calls for a ‘dislike’ button, however, this test may be seen as somewhat of a compromise. The resistance to implement the controversial feature centered around fears that it could be used as a form of online bullying.
Facebook Finally Introduces A “Dislike” Button https://t.co/npKntD9wvWpic.twitter.com/M6h9NLb30q
— kanyin Bhaseet (@kanyin_sbreed) March 5, 2017
The feature is the latest iteration of Facebook’s ‘Reactions,’ which, since their launch almost a year ago, have proven to be very popular with users with over 300 billion such reactions sent so far.
The only difference between the reactions on Facebook’s main platform and those trialed on Messenger is the dislike button, or thumbs down emoticon.
“We’re always testing ways to make Messenger more fun and engaging. This is a small test where we enable people to share an emoji that best represents their feelings on a message,” Techcrunch cite a Facebook representative as saying.
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Facebook are adamant that this is a “no” rather than a dislike button, saying that people often use the messenger app for planning and coordination, and see emojis as the perfect tool to speed up logistics.
