Anyone who’s ever read any comment section on the Internet—which you should never, ever do—knows that a lot of people use the World Wide Web mainly as a channel to express hate. So it makes sense that ever since Facebook introduced the now ubiquitous “Like” button, users have been pleading for a “Dislike” option like the Barabbas-freeing crowd in ancient Jerusalem.
To continue the biblical metaphor, it seems like the tech giant’s Pontius Pilate has finally succumbed to the masses—or at least, it seemed that way at first. According to The Verge, in a press conference yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg said that “People have asked about the ‘Dislike’ button for many years … and today is a special day, because today is the day that I actually get to say we are working on it and are very close to shipping a test of it.”
Although, much to the dismay of hordes of bloodthirsty Internet trolls, the title of “Dislike” may be a bit misleading. Zuckerberg said that their aim is to make the new button a tool to “express empathy.”
“We don’t want to turn Facebook into a forum where people are voting up or down on people’s posts,” Zuckerberg said. So unless people find a way to use the new “empathy tool” sarcastically, it looks like Facebook will remain distinct from other widely used internet forums like Reddit and 4chan.
So, sorry online bullies. In Zuckerberg’s world at least, your terrible reign is not yet at hand.
(via The Verge)
