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Facebook dislike buttons would bring too much 'negative energy' to the social network

Facebook is beginning to roll out its solution to a 'dislike' button in the form of six new reactions

Samuel Osborne
Saturday 10 October 2015 12:34 BST
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Reactions are currently being trialed in Span and Ireland
Reactions are currently being trialed in Span and Ireland (Facebook)

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Facebook didn't add a 'dislike' button because it would bring too much negativity to the social network.

Adam Mosseri, head of Facebook's news team, told Bloomberg his team decided the ability to 'dislike' posts wouldn't be "in the spirit of the product we're trying to build".

The social network is beginning to roll out its solution to a 'dislike' button in the form of six new emoji.

Along with the standard 'like', users can now express various feelings on a status, picture or video.

As with the like button, reactions will appear on any post in the news feed on mobile or desktop.

The crop of new reactions that Facebook will soon be rolling out to users' newsfeeds
The crop of new reactions that Facebook will soon be rolling out to users' newsfeeds (Facebook)

Mr Mosseri was given the mandate to make it easier for people to express themselves without the need to post an entire comment.

To decide on how to implement reactions, he combined sociologists' feedback with data showing what people do on Facebook.

“We wanted to make it easier,” he said. “When things are easier to do, they reach more people, and more people engage with them.

The new emojis were released to users in Spain and Ireland on Thursday and will likely be rolled out to all users in the coming months.

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