Facebook is preparing a “Don’t Like” button, but it’s not what you think

The “Don’t Like” button has been on Facebook users’ wish lists for a long time. After years waffling, the social giant may have caved: a “Don’t Like” button may appear on FB in upcoming months… but there are some conditions.

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According to media in the United Kingdom, Facebook has tested this button on 5 percent of its North American users. Rather than a thumbs down, it would be more like a negative vote or downvote, and would be used to flag posts or comments that may be considered malicious or disrespectful.

So, the idea behind this “Don’t Like” button isn’t to express disagreement (for that, we’ve already got the “angry face” reaction), but rather to report inappropriate content on the platform. Also, it would come with another button, upvote, that would show preference for certain content.

The system of upvotes and downvotes is similar to “karma” on some sites or votes on platforms such as Reddit and Quora, which highlight one post above the rest.

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By encouraging the best comments, Facebook users would work to self-moderate, which would help the company determine what its audience is really interested in.

The end goal of all this would be to stop “fake news,” a plague to Facebook and other networks like YouTube.

In any case, all this work won’t be left to users: just this week, Facebook announced that it will establish offices in Barcelona with a team solely dedicated to moderating and verifying content. It’s clear that, besides the good work by users, more professional tools are needed to fight against fake info.

What do you think about the premiere of this “Don’t Like” button? Do you think users will use it correctly?