Facebook appears to testing a new ‘downvote’ button for comments. Curiously, there doesn’t seem to be the option to downvote entire posts; as the social media giant is using system as a means of moderating what people want to see.
For now, downvoting a comment will only hide it from view for the particular user. Once that happens, the user is asked to provide a reason for the action; with the choices being “offensive,” “misleading,” or “off topic.”
Facebook has stated that this is not supposed to be a dislike button. Rather it is,”…a feature for people to give us feedback about comments on public page posts.” Facebook also confirmed that the testing is running for a select few in the US for now, with no plans for global roll out anytime soon.
Facebook is testing downvoting comments pic.twitter.com/SBOSQITotO
— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) February 8, 2018
The downvote button could help Facebook identifying comments that are harmful to conversations, and those that keep the communities going. On the other hand the button could also end with Facebook’s users self-regulating themselves; turning the site into an even bigger echo chamber than it already is.
(Source: The Verge)
