Facebook Is Working On A ‘Dislike’ Button But It's Not What You Think

Mark Zuckerberg announced the new Facebook functionality would be used to express empathy

Mark Zuckerberg has announced that the world’s leading social network is developing a ‘Dislike’ button.

The Facebook founder and CEO has claimed that rather than use thumbs-down to show that you don’t like something, the new functionality will be intended to express empathy.

Speaking at a Q&A session in at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, the 31-year-old revealed the latest addition to the network:

‘People have asked about the “Dislike” button for many years,’ Zuckerberg told the audience on Tuesday.

‘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.’

Zuckerberg was quick to point out that this new button wasn’t a chance for users to “downvote” posts, which is common on forums like YouTube and Imgur.

‘We didn’t want to just build a “Dislike” button because we don’t want to turn Facebook into a forum where people are voting up or down on people’s posts. That doesn’t seem like the kind of community we want to create.

‘What [people] really want is to be able to express empathy. Not every moment is a good moment, right? And if you are sharing something that is sad, whether it’s something in current events like the refugee crisis that touches you or if a family member passed away, then it might not feel comfortable to Like that post.”

“But your friends and people want to be able to express that they understand and that they relate to you.”

News of the new button comes six years after Facebook introduced the “Like” button back in 2009. Last month, the social network reported that for the first time ever one billion people used their Facebook accounts in a single day.

Do you think Facebook needs a "Dislike" button?