Dislike button for web abuse
FACEBOOK is planning a “dislike button” – but it will mean users reporting their mates for “offensive” material.
The downvote option is being tested for comments, not individual posts.
Hitting it will flag up the comment as potentially offensive.
It is not known if the user will know they were reported.
Fans of the social media giant have long demanded a dislike option, which Facebook has resisted in case it spreads negativity.
Even now, the company insists the downvote tool is not a “dislike” button.
A spokesman said: “We are not testing a dislike button. We are exploring a feature for people to give us feedback about comments on public page posts.
“This is running for a small set of people in the US only.”
The test is reportedly running for 5% of Android users in the US, and while there are no immediate plans to expand it further, it may eventually become a part of Facebook’s commenting furniture.
Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg previously dismissed the idea of a dislike button, stating: “We don’t want to turn Facebook into a forum where people are voting up or down on people’s posts.” TV drug series Breaking Bad is the most likely to start viewers binge-watching, followed by Orange Is The New Black and The Walking Dead, a Netflix poll found.
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