You Want a Dislike Button? Here’s Why Facebook Isn’t Giving You One

Earlier this week, Facebook launched Reactions globally — allowing users to select which emotion a post evokes: like, love, haha, wow, sad or angry.

What’s missing in that list? Dislike.

Many, many Facebook users have clamored for a dislike button for years. An October poll by YouGov Omnibus shows that 38 percent of people polled were in favor of a dislike button (compared to 30 percent who wanted Reactions).

People took to Facebook and Twitter to complain about the lack of a dislike button within Reactions.

When Facebook finally gives us Reactions… but there’s still no dislike button option.

— Nyle DiMarco (@NyleDiMarco) February 24, 2016

All we wanted was a Dislike Button. #socialmedia #facebook http://pic.twitter.com/iRD9xT8mho

— Meg Nordmann (@MegNordmann) February 24, 2016

Facebook product design director Geoff Teahan explained in a very thorough blog post why they’re not developing a dislike button:

We first needed to consider how many different reactions we should include. This might seem like a pretty straightforward task: Just slap a thumbs down next to the Like button and ship it. It’s not nearly that simple though. People need a much higher degree of sophistication and richness in what choices we provide for their communications. Binary ‘like’ and ‘dislike’ doesn’t properly reflect how we react to the vast array of things we encounter in our real lives.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, explained in a Dec. 2014 Q&A session why the dislike button will not be a part of Facebook:

The like button is really valuable because it’s a way for you to very quickly express a positive emotion or sentiment when someone puts themselves out there and shares something. Some people have asked for a dislike button because they want to be able to say, “That thing isn’t good.” That’s not something that we think is good. We’re not going to build that, and I don’t think there needs to be a voting mechanism on Facebook about whether posts are good or bad. I don’t think that’s socially very valuable or good for the community to help people share the important moments in their lives.

Facebook included negative emotions in Reactions — sad and angry, but they were very explicit in their lack of desire for a straight-up dislike button.

It’s not coming to Facebook. Get over it.

Readers: Do you still think Facebook should have a dislike button?

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