Facebook tests downvote option for page post comments

Facebook is starting to look a little more like Reddit for some users.

The social network in February first started testing a downvote option with a small number of users. Now, Facebook is making that option more widely available.

In a statement to PCMag, the social network confirmed it's currently "running a test that introduces an upvote and downvote action for comments on large public Page posts." The company started testing this a few weeks ago with certain Pages in New Zealand and recently expanded it to a few more in Australia. Facebook acknowledged it's using these votes as a signal when ranking comments.

"Public discussions are an important part of Facebook, and people have told us they want more ways to make sure those discussions are constructive – even when people might disagree with each other," a Facebook spokesperson said in an email. "Facebook is a place for free expression, but we also recognize that there should be a way for people tell us and each other which comments are most thoughtful and useful."

The company went on to say that "this feature allows people to push those thoughtful and engaging comments to the top of the discussion thread, and to move down the ones that are simply attacks or filled with profanity."

The new feature will not affect your personal News Feed or interactions with friends, Facebook added.

On Twitter, Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian quipped that he was "flattered" by Facebook trying out the feature.

When it first started testing the feature in February, Facebook stressed that it's not a dislike button.

"We are not testing a dislike button," the company said in an email at the time. "We are exploring a feature for people to give us feedback about comments on public page posts."

Meanwhile, Facebook recently published the lengthy "Community Standards" its reviewers use to decide what type of content—and who—to remove from the platform. The move to publish these once internal guidelines comes after The Guardian last year obtained and posted snippets of the company's exhaustive and sometimes contradictory rules.

Source: foxnews