Because sometimes getting ratioed isn’t explicit enough.
Twitter is currently “exploring” adding a dislike button or some kind of downvoting system, presumably à la Reddit, announced the company’s product lead on Tuesday. The potential change, confirmed Twitter, is part of a larger effort to make Twitter a place amenable to more nuanced conversations.
Notably, Twitter explores new features all the time — and many of those features never launch. Still, hearing it straight from the horse’s mouth suggests a dislike button of some kind may very well be an actual thing coming to Twitter.
Kayvon Beykpour, Twitter’s product lead, let slip the news in an exchange on (where else?) Twitter. Replying to a critique of Twitter’s development priorities from Jackie Singh, a cybersecurity expert for the Joe Biden campaign, Beykpour insisted that Twitter prioritizes addressing issues like “coordinated inauthentic behavior,” “harassment,” and “Disinformation.”
In response to Singh’s statement that Twitter should “Add dislike button or downvote capability,” Beykpour wrote, “this is something we’re exploring.”
#1, 2 and 4 are literally our top priority (making the public conversation on Twitter) and has been for years. We’ve made a lot of progress but still lots to do. We do feel it’s important to solve other problems too! As for #3, this is something we’re exploring.
— Kayvon Beykpour (@kayvz) November 17, 2020
Unfortunately, we weren’t able pin Twitter down on when you might actually get a dislike button (or even if you will definitely get one). But it’s noteworthy that Twitter is exploring such a button at all.
Obviously, Twitter’s product team thinks the platform, as it currently exists, could use a bit of improvement. For now, feel free to quote tweet, reply to, like, or retweet if you agree.