Facebook will finally let its billion-plus users worldwide express displeasure or sadness about posts on the social service.
The company is developing a way for people to indicate feelings of sadness or sympathy about Facebook content and comments, CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed during a Q&A session Tuesday. That will complement the Facebook's trademark "like" feature, which it launched in early 2009.
After years of users asking for a "dislike" button, "today is the day I can say we're working on it and shipping it," he said at the publicly live-streamed town hall event.
Zuckerberg added that what Facebook users "really want is an ability to express empathy." He didn't provide details on when the feature would go live but said Facebook will begin testing alternatives to the "like" button soon. "We will deliver something that meets the needs of the larger community," Zuckerberg said.
Facebook has resisted adding a "dislike" button on the theory it would discourage people from sharing posts -- or even that it would engender misunderstandings or animosity among friends.
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