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Twitter Will Not Receive A Dislike Button Any Time Soon

ByPriye Rai November 19, 2020November 19, 2020

Time and again, many users have called out Twitter for adding certain features commonly found in other social media platforms. One such feature, the “dislike button,” seems to have taken a backseat in the social giant’s long-term plan.

In a Twitter exchange, Product Lead Kayvon Beykpour revealed that the dislike button is not a major objective for Twitter, but something for the future.

When Beykpour announced the global release of “Fleets” on his Twitter, security expert Jackie Singh drew his attention towards “(sic) REAL PROBLEMS.” A popular issue she mentioned was the absence of a dislike button on Twitter. Other issues, she urged the platform to act on were bots, online harassment & reporting, and misinformation.

Replying to this, Beykpour stated that, while tackling bots, harassment, and misinformation were top priorities, a dislike button didn’t carry the same importance for the company. Moreover, clarifying his stance on the much-demanded feature, he said, “… this is something we’re exploring.”

#1, 2 and 4 are literally our top priority (making the public conversation on Twitter) and has been for years. We’ve made a lot of progress but still lots to do. We do feel it’s important to solve other problems too! As for #3, this is something we’re exploring.
— Kayvon Beykpour (@kayvz) November 17, 2020

There are two things we can interpret from Beykpour’s answer. First, Twitter’s primary focus is making the platform an inclusive, bot-free community where chances of misinformation going viral are minimum. Second, although there is no immediate plan, the dislike button is something the company is certainly curious about.

Twitter’s approach to make the platform a unique offering reaches a ridiculous extent when the most basic features are left out. Maybe, it’s time for the American firm to take a page out of others’ books and incorporate essential features it doesn’t currently have.

Priye Rai

Priye is a tech writer who writes about anything remotely related to tech, including gaming, smartphones, social media, etc. He prefers to be called a "video game journalist" and grimaces when he doesn't get to be "Player 1." If you want to share feedback or talk about games, reach out to @priyeakapj on Twitter.