Instagram confirms it's testing a new dislike button

Not everything shared on social media attracts positive responses from users. Sometimes, it's something someone said in the comments you don't resonate with, and you find yourself looking for a dislike button that isn't there.

Meta-owned Instagram is working to address such situations through a new "dislike" button for comments made on posts and Reels. Instagram chief Adam Mosseri confirmed via his Threads accounts that the company is testing a dislike button for comments following user reports that such a thing is on the table.

The existence of the Instagram dislike button was also revealed by the leaker Alessandro Paluzzi last month. While the button allows users to dislike or downvote a comment, according to Mosseri, it's still a "private way to signal that they don’t feel good about that particular comment."

While it's giving users a medium to express their disagreement, Instagram is trying to play it safe by not telling everyone how many dislikes a comment got or who did it. The company hopes the move will make Instagram's comment section "more friendly." However, Instagram will use the data it collects from the dislike button to optimize its comment ranking algorithm.

"I want to be clear: this is a test, there is no dislike count, nor will anyone know if you tap the button. Eventually, we may integrate this signal into comments ranking to move disliked comments lower down," Mosseri said.

Meta and Instagram will be far from early movers in this case, as the ability to downvote or dislike content on social media has existed for years. Prime examples include YouTube's dislike buttons for videos and comments and Reddit's downvote button on posts and comments. However, in YouTube's case, the dislike count was removed back in 2021.

Mosseri didn't share information about when the testing will end, and when the Instagram dislike button will reach a wider audience. Whether the button trickles down to its text-based spin-off Threads remains to be seen.

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