FX.co ★ Facebook offers “Dislike” button

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg revealed his company's plans during a Q&A session at its corporate headquarters on Tuesday. In the live streamed event, Zuckerberg revealed that development of the so-called "Dislike" button is in the works, though he didn't give a timeframe for when it might launch outside of "soon." Zuckerberg said Facebook has been reluctant to add a "dislike" button to accompany its popular "Like" button, because officials at the company have been concerned about it becoming a way for users to "upvote" and "downvote" posts like on Reddit. But there are times when users want to acknowledge a post without "liking" it, particularly if the news being shared is sad. For example, Zuckerberg said the company wants to offer an alternative way to respond when a family member dies, or for events like the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe.

In addition to demonstrating empathy, the appearance of a new button is a way to give an emotional depth to the well-known social network, experts believe.

Also, analysts believe that the social network keeps track of every user's click of "Share", "Like" buttons, adding friends or publishing photos. Facebook needs these knowledge in order to offer users news, articles or pages that are similar to those they have liked earlier. Therefore, the appearance of the button "Dislike" will help to count responses to posts with sad content.

Facebook now has about 1.5 billion active users. So, according to experts, the new button is able to attract new-comers. If, for example, sportswear manufacturers can track contacts of football fans, now charitable organizations will also be able to find sympathizers for refugees in Europe.