Even though downvote isn’t a very prominent feature of many social networking services, Twitter is trying to add it to its platform according to an NBCNews report.
According to a statement made by the social media giant, it said it was expanding a test to a global selection of people who use the app after it got what it said was positive feedback from a limited experiment back in July.
“We are still in the learning stage of this experiment and are looking to gain a better understanding of how Reply Downvoting could help us better surface the most relevant content for peAccording ople on Twitter in the future,” the company said in a statement.
We learned a lot about the types of replies you don't find relevant and we're expanding this test –– more of you on web and soon iOS and Android will have the option to use reply downvoting.
Downvotes aren’t public, but they'll help inform us of the content people want to see. https://t.co/g8LcTpQqDv pic.twitter.com/wm5MmdR4Xh
- Advertisement -
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) February 3, 2022
Twitter didn’t say how many people had access to the test but said that it’s a “global audience.”
The feature would have an effect on what tweets get shown in which order on the site and its apps even though Twitter made it known that for now, the downvotes are going to be private and won’t affect how replies are ordered.
Some experts believe that a downvote button has the potential of improving the quality of conversation on the platform even though they’ve expressed concerns that this could be used to silence marginalized groups.
. Emoji-based reactions that Facebook added in 2016 inadvertently led to more toxicity on its platform, internal researchers found later.
So far, Twitter said, user feedback has been positive.
“A majority of our users shared that the reason they clicked the down arrow was either that the reply was perceived as offensive, or because they perceived it as not relevant, or both,” the company said.
Early testers “agree it improves the quality of conversations on Twitter,” it said.