Ahead of the launch of Facebook’s Reactions feature, there were reports that Facebook could be looking to launch a “dislike” button instead. However Facebook launched Reactions which admittedly does provide a wide array of ways to interact with posts, but it seems that the dislike button is still alive and well.You might recall that earlier this year Facebook started to test out a downvote button. The good news is that the testing of the feature has expanded and is now available to some users living in Australia and New Zealand. Facebook has confirmed that they are expanding the feature to more users and while they stated that it was only available for testing in New Zealand, some users in Australia are reporting that they are seeing it as well, such as CNET Sydney.
For those unfamiliar with the downvote button, it’s not a dislike button. Instead it will be a button that users can use to rank comments made on public posts. This is similar to how comments on some websites work, where the most highly ranked comment is shown at the top and more visible, while those that have been downvoted tend to be pushed to the bottom or hidden in some cases.
According to a Facebook spokesperson, “People have told us they would like to see better public discussions on Facebook, and want spaces where people with different opinions can have more constructive dialogue […] Our hope is that this feature will make it easier for us to create such spaces, by ranking the comments that readers believe deserve to rank highest, rather than the comments that get the strongest emotional reaction.”
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