Facebook will not be implementing a 'dislike' button; the social media firm is thinking about other ways to express users' emotions about a post instead, according to the company's Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg during a second round of question and answer in its Menlo Park headquarters in California.
Zuckerberg said that more Facebook users are having a hard time in using the 'like' button appropriately when a friend posts something unfortunate or sad, while other users also want to express more than "liking" a post.
"Giving people more ways of expressing more emotions would be powerful," said the Facebook CEO.
However, Zuckerberg mentioned that the world's largest social media firm has no plans in adding a 'dislike' button, which is one of the most requested features in Facebook, according to him.
In an effort to give Facebook users a wider range of emotions, the social media firm will think of a safe way to implement potential new features as it could negatively impact or even cyber-bully other users, instead of being a "force for good."
Zuckerberg noted that comments are one way of expressing an emotion about a post, but most users feel that they need to think of a clever and witty thing to say.
The Facebook CEO added that there would be no upcoming announcement yet regarding the issue.
According to data from Facebook itself, there are around 4.5 billion 'likes' clicked every day. It's 'like' feature was first introduced along with the 'share' feature, which lets users re-post, in 2009 and was revamped in November 2013. Both buttons are one of the major factors in Facebook's traffic drive.
In July 2012, the BBC conducted an investigation about Facebook 'likes' farming. BBC set up a fake bagel company page and generated thousands of 'likes' despite being a clear bogus.