Instagram confirms testing new Dislike button

Instagram Confirms It's Testing a New "Dislike" ButtonIt's a fact that not everything shared on social media gets a positive response from users. Sometimes, it's a comment that you don't agree with, and you wish there was a "Dislike" button to express your opinion. However, this Dislike button is almost non-existent on popular social media platforms today.

Instagram, the world's largest photo-sharing social media platform owned by Meta, is trying to address this situation with a new "dislike" button for comments on posts and Reels. The platform's CEO Adam Mosseri confirmed via his Threads account that he is testing adding a "dislike" button to comments. The decision comes after a series of Instagram user surveys on the need for the feature.

The existence of the Instagram “dislike” button was also revealed by tech blogger Alessandro Paluzzi last month. According to CEO Mosseri, the button is not necessarily a way to “dislike” or “downvote” a comment, but is essentially a “private way to express that we don’t agree with that particular comment.”

Additionally, Instagram will also try to maintain the friendliness and civility that is expected on the platform by not revealing the number of "Dislikes" or who has clicked the button. The company hopes that this move will make Instagram's comments "more friendly." However, Instagram will use the data collected from the "dislike" button to optimize its comment ranking algorithm.

Meta and Instagram aren't pioneers in this regard, as the ability to "downvote" or "dislike" content on social media has existed for years. Prominent examples include YouTube's "dislike" button for videos and comments, as well as Reddit's "downvote" button for posts and comments. However, in YouTube's case, the "dislike" count has been hidden since 2021.

Mosseri did not share any information about when the test will end or when Instagram's "dislike" button will be rolled out more widely. Whether the feature will come to Threads, Instagram's text-based version, remains to be seen.