facebook confirms testing of downvote button to flag comments

as if writing something on social media wasn’t angst-ridden enough, it seems facebook will now allow users to downvote comments to eventually hide them (and your confidence forever). the social media giant is testing the ‘downvote’ button, making it first available for a small set of users on thursday, and possibly bringing us closer to the ‘dislike’ button users have demanded over the years.

facebook offers options for downvoting comments
images courtesy of @hudlersocial via twitter

select facebook users noticed a ‘downvote’ option appearing underneath comments on posts, next to the ‘like’ and ‘reply’ buttons. according to reports on twitter, users can choose to ‘downvote’ a comment from a list of options marking the comment as ‘offensive’ or ‘misleading.’ it seems that facebook is enlisting its users in their ongoing campaign to stamp out misinformation and propaganda on the site (did anyone say fake news?). how this feature will be monitored is still unknown but should large numbers of people from one side of a debate make use of the ‘downvote’ button, it might not be the fairest way to display a fair variation of information.

facebook feed demonstrating the downvote option

co-founder mark zuckerberg has been hesitant of a dislike feature, explaining in 2015 to cnbc: ‘that doesn’t seem like the kind of community that we want to create: ‘you don’t want to go through the process of sharing some moment that was important to you in your day and have someone downvote.’