Facebook: 'Dislike' Button Not For Trolling
Facebook is working on a 'dislike' button, its founder Mark Zuckerberg has announced, after years of resisting popular demand for such a tool. During a question-and-answer session at the social network's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, he revealed the button would allow Facebook users to "express empathy" with their friends.
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"People have asked about the 'dislike' button for many years, and probably hundreds of people have asked about this, and today is a special day because today is the day that I actually get to say we are working on it, and are very close to shipping a test of it," he said.
Facebook's trust and safety manager Emily Vacher told Sky News the new dislike button was not an encouragement to trolls.
She said: "We certainly don’t want (trolling) on Facebook. We want it to be a place where people feel welcome and feel the warmth and sharing the information in their community.
"It may end up that it’s not technically a dislike, it may be empathy."
"It’s something that we’re testing right now because we want people to be able to express themselves in the way that they feel most comfortable on Facebook."
Facebook users have long pointed out the thumbs-up 'like'’ button is not suitable for certain status updates, such as bereavements or other bad news.
"If you are sharing something that is sad," Mr Zuckerberg, 31, acknowleged on Tuesday, "then it may not feel comfortable to 'like' that post."
He added: "It's important to give people more options than just 'like.'"
But he said a 'dislike' tool was "surprisingly complicated" to develop.
"We don't want to turn Facebook into a forum where people are voting up or down on people's posts," he said.
For years, Facebook has resisted creating a 'dislike' button, fearing that it could fuel bullying or negativity.
Some 4.5bn likes were generated daily as of May 2013, according to the social network.