Mark Zuckerberg confirmed Tuesday that Facebook is working on adding a "Dislike" button, something users have been clamoring for for years.
The chief executive of the social network made the announcement during a question and answer session at
Facebook's headquarters, Business Insider reported.
"I think people have asked about the dislike button for many years," Zuckerberg said. "Today is a special day because today is the day I can say we’re working on it and shipping it."
Zuckerberg said Facebook did not want to become an up-voting and down-voting system like Reddit, but understood that people's attraction to an "Dislike" button would be to show an emotion.
"What [users] really want is the ability to express empathy," he said. "Not every moment is a good moment."
According to CNN, the button's format is still not clear because Zuckerberg admitted that adding it has been surprisingly more complicated than originally thought. He said, though, that he hopes it will be ready to roll out soon.
"We have an idea that we're going to be ready to test soon, and depending on how that does, we'll roll it out more broadly," he added.
Zuckerberg said he hopes that whatever Facebook comes up with will meet a need for users who have been asking for a button beyond "Like" for different personal news.
"If you're sharing something that is sad, whether it's something in current events, like the refugee crisis, or if a family member passed away, then it may not feel comfortable to 'like' that post," he said.
"But your friends want to be able to express that they understand and relate to you, so I do think it's important to give people more options than just 'like' as a quick way to emote and share what they're feeling on a post."
Facebook is also developing a stand-alone video app that would support 360-degree or
"spherical" videos, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week. The format would allow users to change their viewing perspective simply by tilting their phones.
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