Facebook 'Dislike' Button Coming Soon? Mark Zuckerberg Discusses Possible Update

Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg holds the second Q&A session in Facebook's headquarters. |

In the second round of question and answer session, Mark Zuckerberg shares with the audience one of the most talked about additions in the social networking site Facebook-the 'Dislike' button.

Zuckerberg conducted the second round of question and answer conference on Thursday at Menlo Park in California. With approximately 150 people in attendance, the chief executive officer of Facebook shared with the participants the reasons considered for the probable addition of the much discussed 'Dislike' button.

He explained that the inspiration for mulling over the addition of the said button is the company's goal to provide its users a wider range of options to express their emotions. Zuckerberg disclosed during the conference that their team felt that the Facebook users have limited ways to convey their thoughts.

"One of things we've thought about for quite a while is what's the right way to make it so that people can easily express a broader range of emotions," Zuckerberg shared.

Moreover, he explained that the 'Like' button provided for Facebook users to utilize in reacting to posts seem unable to fully communicate their mind-sets.

"A lot of times people share things on Facebook that are sad moments in their lives. Often people tell us that they don't feel comfortable pressing 'like' because 'like' isn't the appropriate sentiment," Zuckerberg said. "What's the right way to make it so people can easily express a broader range of emotions? To empathize," he added.

With the restrictive scope of emotions expressed by pressing the 'Like' button on Facebook, Zuckerberg shared that the users of the social networking site now requests for inclusion of a 'Dislike' button to properly address certain events or instances posted by their friends and family.  

"Some people have asked for a dislike button because they want to say, 'That thing isn't good.' That's not something that we think is good for the world," said Zuckerberg.

However, the Facebook founder also revealed that including such option will have to be considered carefully. Zuckerberg explained that he does not want the 'Dislike' button to end up being used as a tool to cause conflict in the social networking pages.

"We need to figure out the right way to do it so it ends up being a force for good, not a force for bad and demeaning the posts that people are putting out there," he stated.