Why Facebook says a 'dislike' button will make the site more compassionate
There are lots of scenarios where Facebook鈥檚 鈥渓ike鈥� button just doesn鈥檛 cut it.
Maybe you want to show sympathy when a friend posts that they had a bad day, without seeming to take pleasure in their misery. Or maybe you just want to voice your disagreement with something someone posts, without having to type out a full rebuttal.
Facebook users have asked for a 鈥渄islike鈥� button for years, and on Tuesday chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg announced that the feature is coming soon.
鈥淧robably hundreds of people have asked about this, and today ... I actually get to say we are working on it, and are very close to shipping a test of it,鈥� Mr. Zuckerberg said during a company town-hall meeting in Menlo Park, Calif. The feature would allow people to more easily express anger, sadness, or interest in a topic, in addition to the 鈥渓ike鈥� button currently used to show support for a post.
鈥淚t's surprisingly complicated to make,鈥� Zuckerberg said, 鈥淏ut we have an idea that we think we're getting ready to test soon, and depending on how that goes, we'll roll it out more broadly.鈥�
Some of that complexity comes from the fact that Facebook doesn鈥檛 want to turn 鈥渓ikes鈥� and 鈥渄islikes鈥� into a ranking system. Other Internet forums such as Reddit and Voat use a rough 鈥渢humbs up鈥� and 鈥漷humbs down鈥� system to vote on posts, which affects how visible those posts are to others users. Facebook wants to allow users to 鈥渄islike鈥� posts, without voting those posts down into oblivion.
A 鈥渄islike鈥� button would increase Facebook鈥檚 emotional breadth by allowing users to more easily express sympathy or sadness to one another. It could also allow Facebook to understand its users better. The company鈥檚 $240 billion value comes from the enormous mound of user data it holds, Carl Miller, Research Director of the UK-based Centre for the Analysis of Social Media. And a richer understanding of how users interact with and relate to one another would be worth even more to advertisers. For example, a charity or a political campaign could advertise to those who expressed, by way of the 鈥渄islike鈥� button, sadness about a particular social ill.
The 鈥渄islike鈥� button would probably also affect how your News Feed is curated. Right now Facebook uses material you鈥檝e 鈥渓iked鈥� in the past to try to predict what kinds of stories you鈥檒l find especially interesting, and puts those front-and-center on your feed. The 鈥渄islike鈥� button could ensure that content that鈥檚 important or meaningful, but not necessarily happy, doesn鈥檛 get filtered out without your having seen it.
