After 9 years of begging and pleading, Facebook co-founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, finally announced that Facebook is developing a ‘dislike’ button for the popular social media site.

The new addition to Facebook will allow users to express their ‘dislike’ of a post, as opposed to the very popular ‘like’ function currently available. 

Zuckerberg said of the button: “People have asked about the dislike button for many years. We’ve finally heard you and we’re working on this, and we will deliver something that meets the needs of the larger community.”

For years Facebook has dismissed this idea. In 2013 Bob Baldwin, Product Engineer for Facebook, reported that the company will not be looking into designing this feature. “Actions on Facebook tend to focus on positive social interactions... I don’t think adding a light-weight feature to express negative sentiment would be that valuable.” said Baldwin. Zuckerberg also said that he wanted to avoid a Reddit-like style systems where likes vs. dislikes outweighed each other below someone’s posts. 

2 years later, Zuckerberg has changed his tune, and the button has almost reached testing stage. However, he says the ‘dislike’ button is not meant as a negative feature:

“What people really want is to express empathy. Not every moment is a good moment.” notes Zuckerberg. Using news reports such as the Syrian refugee crisis or the death of a loved one, Zuckerberg said that the ‘like’ button did not always convey the the user’s true emotions on the subject. 

However pure his intentions are, and even though it works on other less-personal sites, there are a few negative aspects to this.

Raffaele Mc Creadie, owner of Decimal Agency, says: “The function carries a few complications with it. It is too easy to interpret the response as an insult against the user who posted the comment or article. Also, paid-for ads might get drowned in a sea of ‘dislikes’, disencouraging companies to use Facebook advertising. Social media is an important part of online advertising, and Facebook is the biggest performed of all.” In addition to this, psychologists are noting that Facebook would become a platform where individual posters will start to feel less confident about themselves. “The word ‘dislike’ has a very strong, negative connotation. Receiving dislikes for your most intimate posts or selfie photos will foster a feeling of not being liked, or not being good enough. Trolling has also been an issue on social media sites lately, and people might abuse this feature to further their own negative agendas.” comments Mc Creadie.

Has Facebook made the right decision in answering the call of its users? Let us know what your opinion is on the matter.