FOR years, Facebook users have called for a ‘Dislike’ button. And now it seems that the social media giant is finally taking note of its 1.5 billion users. The first official announcement of such a tool was made in 2003, which involved the possibility of introducing a ‘Sympathy’ button.
During a live question-and-answer session streamed on Facebook on Tuesday last week, CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, confirmed that they were testing alternatives to the ‘Like’ button, which was introduced to the platform in 2009.
“People have asked about the ‘Dislike’ button for many years. Today is the day that I actually get to say we are working on it,” he said at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California.
However, during the interview, Zuckerberg said that the tool would not necessarily be called a ‘Dislike’ button, as it wouldn’t be used for expressing disdain for a particular post. Rather, it would be created to express empathy where the infamous ‘Like’ button would be inappropriate (such as the loss of a job or death in the family), he explained.
“Not every moment is a good moment,” he added. Facebook is working on the tool, he said, but gave no release date.
Last year, Facebook engineer, Bob Baldwin, said the decision to deny the overwhelming requests was based on the notion that the social media site focuses primarily on positive social interactions.
Other interesting suggestions include:
– Dislike
– Love
– Hate
– Applaud
– Throw tomato
– Accuse of racism
– Too soon!
– Are you drunk?
