X (formerly Twitter) is developing a 'dislike' button to give people a bad rating on replies

It has become clear that X is developing a 'Dislike' button that has the opposite meaning to the standard 'Like' button on social media sites such as X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram.

X is building a 'dislike' button for downvoting replies | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/11/x-is-building-a-dislike-button-for-downvoting-replies/

TechCrunch reports that X is working on a button to allow users to dislike replies in an effort to improve the way it ranks replies to posts. X has not made an official announcement about the dislike button, but recent research suggests that instead of the Reddit-style dislike icon (a downward arrow), it will have an icon that clearly indicates 'not like.'

When reverse engineer Aaron Peris looked into the source code of the iOS version of the X app, he discovered that there was a broken heart icon next to the like button, which was actually a 'dislike' button, and that this button was actually a ' low rating ' button.

The ability to dislike posts are coming to the X for iOS app as well pic.twitter.com/rWk5mkRcip

— Aaron (@aaronp613) July 11, 2024

X user @P4mui has posted a video showing how the 'Dislike' button actually works. According to him, at the time of writing this article, it appears that the 'Dislike' button is only available for replies.

The new button dislikes the action (appeals to downvote online), for this moment it is uniquely important to respond

X 10.49 @xDaily pic.twitter.com/ZVgk8izTt1

— P4mui  (@P4mui) July 11, 2024

The 'Dislike' button was also visible in a video posted by X employee Jonah Katz , but Katz deleted the video and reposted a version without the 'Dislike' button.

In addition, since its Twitter days, X has been testing the implementation of a button to indicate negative ratings different from the like button, and in 2022 it was revealed that a 'downvote' button was being tested among some users.

Twitter to expand the use of 'downvote' buttons on tweets - GIGAZINE

Given the increasing number of reports about the 'dislike' button, TechCrunch points out that 'it's likely that the feature is being publicly tested.'

TechCrunch points out that by being able to downvote replies, it will be possible to place highly rated replies at the top of a post and disliked replies at the bottom. This will allow replies aimed at angering the poster or so-called 'impression zombies' to be placed in a position where they are less visible to other users.

At the time of writing, it is unclear whether the 'Dislike' button will be implemented on all posts or only on replies.

◆ Forum is currently open
A forum related to this article has been set up on the official GIGAZINE Discord server . Anyone can post freely, so please feel free to comment! If you do not have a Discord account, please refer to the account creation procedure article to create an account!

• Discord | 'Do you think 'like' buttons are necessary on social media? Don't you think so?' | GIGAZINE
https://discord.com/channels/1037961069903216680/1261248541213593620