No, Twitter Isn’t Testing Out a Dislike Button That No One Asked For, It’s a Downvote Button That No One Asked For

Twitter, the social media platform that continues to release features that no one asked for, is experimenting with a new feature that, wait for it, no one asked for.

While we constantly dunk on things like the impending demise of fleets, this particular feature is an immediate recipe for disaster.

Now, to be fair (not really, because this is still a bad idea), it’s not actually a dislike button.

It’s a downvote button.

I think?

Okay, so Twitter says its a downvote button. They explain it right here:

Even with that explanation, word spread pretty quickly that Twitter was launching a dislike button because, well, when you have a platform that’s only had a like button you assume that the identical icon next to it is a dislike button. You assume that Twitter just came up with a way for people to go from leaving terrible comments on your “I feel good about myself today” post, to hitting a button and, let’s be real, leaving terrible comments anyway.

Twice the animosity at half the cost.

Honestly, what’s the difference between a dislike and a downvote button on a platform like Twitter?

Do we need an “only visible to the user” button that tells Twitter what we don’t want to see? Isn’t that what muting and blocking is for? Haven’t we been downvoting things on Twitter in our own way this entire time?

Who asked for this?!

Listen Twitter, no one is going to look at the thumbs down icon and say, “This isn’t relevant to the conversation.” Even if it’s only visible to them, it’s going to be used as a dislike button, so much so that I bet people would screencap the icon and post in a comment thread just to let that person know that they don’t like their cat or selfie or art or opinion on the rights of marginalized folks or (insert everything we post about on Twitter).

This is yet another Twitter feature that feels like it came out of nowhere.

Twitter will probably release it anyway.

(Image: Twitter)

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Briana Lawrence

Briana (she/her - bisexual) is trying her best to cosplay as a responsible adult. Her writing tends to focus on the importance of representation, whether it’s through her multiple book series or the pieces she writes. After de-transforming from her magical girl state, she indulges in an ever-growing pile of manga, marathons too much anime, and dedicates an embarrassing amount of time to her Animal Crossing pumpkin patch (it's Halloween forever, deal with it Nook)

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