There is hardly a trace left of what Twitter once was. Ever since Elon Musk bought the company and changed the name of the social network to X, the blue bird logo to a letter, and the verification system, nothing has been the same. That was the beginning of the transformation of the platform, and now new changes are on the way. Recently, its developers removed public ‘likes’ and now they are considering adding a ‘dislike’ button.
Before the Tesla owner showed signs of wanting to acquire Twitter, the team behind the social network had already tried negative votes. That was in 2021 and Elon Musk took over the platform at the end of November 2022. Although the entrepreneur wanted to change many things, there are proposals that already existed that he is still going ahead with.
An example of this was the decision to hide the ‘Likes’ on X. Previously, there had been plans to delete the section that showed the posts that users liked. Musk’s team only made a reality of what was once tested. Now, it is time for the possibility of implementing a function that allows users to show their dislike of a post.
Reverse engineering expert Aaron Perris (@aaronp613) has shared a new discovery about the app on his X account. As can be seen in the images he uploaded, the developers are testing a ‘Dislike’ button.
Just like the icon for liking a post, X seeks to differentiate itself from other social networks. That’s why, instead of a hand with the thumb up, it has a heart, and instead of a thumb down, it will have an arrow pointing downwards.
Aaron
@aaronp613
It looks like X might be bringing back the downvote button for replies? https://t.co/1s2LzhH7WN
July 2, 2024 • 17:21
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When will the ‘Dislike’ come to X?
Just because Aaron Perris found a reference in X’s code to a button to show dissatisfaction with something doesn’t mean it’s final. In 2021, the addition of downvotes was already considered and eventually discarded. Even if the developers are reconsidering it, the feature may never be released.
However, the topic of adding a ‘dislike’ icon is something Elon Musk has publicly expressed interest in. He did so in a reply to a post on the topic by Jay Baxter, a senior machine learning engineer at X who works on Community Notes. He recently stressed the importance of placing the downvote on the app.
“Community Notes wouldn’t work well without a negative rating signal,” Baxter said. “But you have to be smart about how you use them. If you add them all up naively, you get a hive mind like Reddit.” So it wouldn’t be surprising if they are seriously considering it, but want to tread carefully and consider it thoroughly before releasing the feature.
Jay Baxter
@_jaybaxter_
Community Notes wouldn’t work well without negative rating signal.
But you have to be smart about how you use them. If you naively add them all up, you’ll get a hivemind like Reddit.
One way: only downrank if you see negative ratings from people who typically disagree https://t.co/YfX7Fpm8ka
July 2, 2024 • 18:03
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As Baxter said, the ideal would be for the system to downgrade only posts that had a lot of dislikes from people who normally disagree with it. This would be similar to the tool X already uses in its Community Notes. The context displayed below a post requires consensus from netizens who generally disagree on opinions.
Baxter’s comments don’t confirm the launch of the “dislike” feature. They simply clarify how the feature could work if it were to end up being used. And it seems that within X they must be thinking about just that because Musk confirmed his approach in a comment in which he agreed with Baxter. Of course, the down arrow tool would only be available for comments on a post, not for posts as such.
