The creator of Facebook’s ‘Like’ button has explained why a ‘Dislike’ button will never be implemented in the social networking site.
Former Facebook CTO Bret Taylor explained that Facebook users’ constant appeals to the site to include a ‘Dislike’ option to sit alongside the famous thumbs-up icon would go unheard, due to the site not wanting to promote negativity.
Also See: Facebook’s New ‘Safety Check’ Feature Lets Everyone Know You’re Safe During a Disaster
Speaking to TechRadar, Taylor said: “[The dislike button] came up a lot. In fact even the language of the word like was something we discussed a lot as well. But regarding the dislike button, the main reason is that in the context of the social network, the negativity of that button has a lot of unfortunate consequences.”
“The reason we launched the button in the first place was that there were a lot of times that people wanted to acknowledge something someone did, but didn’t have anything to say. And a lot of comments were one word like ‘cool’ or ‘wow’ so the like button let people did that with a single click. It wasn’t really just a sentiment of ‘like’.”
He added: “I have the feeling that if there were to be a dislike button is that you would end up with these really negative social aspects to it.”
Aside from the ‘Dislike’ button inevitably being used for cyber bullying and other such negative online behavior, it would also inevitably lead to advertisers being more wary of promoting their brands on the site, as users disliking their product would be harmful to their public image. As Facebook continues to push shared and promoted content to the forefront of users’ news feeds, granting them the ability to dislike posts and pages would surely begin with a backlash that would harm the brands whose marketing has proven to be annoyingly pervasive on the social network.
I’d also like to personally add that if Facebook is so concerned with not promoting negativity, then I think we’d all appreciate an update to its photo and video policies. While the company is quick on the ball when it comes to removing images/clips that contain even the slightest hint of a female nipple, footage of extreme violence is commonplace on the site. Just this morning over breakfast I felt compelled to delete a friend after they shared a photo album of a dog that had been tied to the back of a motorcycle and left in a disgusting, bloody mess, in order to promote “awareness of animal abuse.”
In fact, in response to a video depicting a woman being beheaded that was doing the rounds on the social networking site last year, Facebook released a statement that didn’t condemn it being shared whatsoever – but rather asked the people who were sharing it to be mindful of their audience. The statement from the company read:
Going forward, we ask that people who share graphic content for the purpose of condemning it do so in a responsible manner, carefully selecting their audience and warning them about the nature of the content so they can make an informed choice about it.
If nipples are so outrageous that they must be removed from our line of sight immediately, then I should wager that should be the case for gratuitous violence, too, no matter how much “awareness” these images/videos are supposedly promoting.
