Mark Zuckerberg Considering A ‘dislike’ Button For Facebook

Forum 9 years ago

Mark Zuckerberg Considering A ‘dislike’ Button For Facebook

All Facebook users have wished at some point or other that they could stop oversharers, braggers and drunk status-writers in their tracks with a swift click of the ‘dislike’ button.

Unfortunately, no such button exists – but it might fairly soon.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced in a short video on his Facebook page that a ‘dislike’ button or something similar might be needed in the future to give users more freedom to express their feelings.

‘We’re thinking about it. On the dislike button… there are more sentiments that people want to express than just positivity or that they like something,’ he said.

‘The like button is really valuable because it’s a way for you to very quickly express a positive emotion or sentiment when someone puts themselves out there and shares something.
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‘A lot of times people share things on Facebook that are sad moments in their lives or are tough, cultural or social things and often people tell us that they don’t feel comfortable pressing ‘like’ because ‘like’ isn’t the appropriate sentiment when someone lost a loved one or is talking of a very difficult issue.’
Zuckerberg stressed, however, that the ‘dislike’ or equivalent button would have to be a ‘force for good’ and not ‘demeaning the post’.
The announcement represents a spectacular u-turn for Facebook, with former CTO and creator of the ‘like’ button Bret Taylor saying in October that there would ‘never’ be a ‘dislike’ option.
‘The main reason is that in the context of the social network, the negativity of that button has a lot of unfortunate consequences,’ he said.