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Twitter Is Testing A ‘Dislike’ Button So You Can Show What You Really Think
By Alexa Heah, 22 Jul 2021
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Image via XanderSt / Shutterstock.com
This week, Twitter announced it’s been testing a way to upvote or downvote replies, to further understand which comments users find most helpful.
In a tweet by Twitter Support, the social media platform said that select users on iPhone would have access to the function.
While downvotes won’t appear publicly, upvotes will still show as ‘likes’ on a particular tweet. The buttons are simple thumbs-up and thumbs-down icons, and though the testing has already begun, Twitter didn’t specify how many users are part of it.
“This gives people the power to privately voice their opinion on the quality of replies without publicly shaming others while also giving us more nuanced feedback,” said Cody Elam, a user researcher at Twitter.
Previously, celebrity and tech investor Ashton Kutcher had told CNET he felt that “dislike” buttons could possibly cut down hateful comments on social media, as users would be able to downvote hate speech or abuse.
A Twitter spokesperson told the site that while the votes on a reply will not affect how it’s ranked, it may change how the social media app suggests a tweet’s most relevant replies in a conversation.
Some of you on iOS may see different options to up or down vote on replies. We're testing this to understand the types of replies you find relevant in a convo, so we can work on ways to show more of them.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 21, 2021
Your downvotes aren’t public, while your upvotes will be shown as likes. pic.twitter.com/hrBfrKQdcY
[via CNET, cover image via XanderSt / Shutterstock.com]
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