Can we hate tweets on Twitter?
You may have heard of the ability to dislike or “downvote” tweets on Twitter in 2022, but how do you do it and what’s the point? Many social media apps like Reddit, YouTube, and more recently TikTok have successfully integrated a disapproved or downvote feature, but in different ways.
So why don’t you see an option to disapprove tweets while we’re talking about this feature?
No, you cannot disapprove tweets
There is currently no functionality to disapprove or downgrade a tweet. Instead of disapprovals, Twitter uses other metrics to determine a tweet’s popularity and who to suggest tweets to on their timeline.
Only positive reactions like likes, retweets, and tweet quotes are available on mobile and desktop Twitter. Of course, users can always reply to a tweet to express their dislike or negative opinion.
Twitter did a limited downvote test once
If you think you’ve seen a dislike button on Twitter or seen people talking about it, it’s because Twitter has been testing a dislike button that’s only available in a number. limited users in 2021 and 2022. The testing function has since disappeared entirely.
The dislike button is only available on replies, not original tweets. The number of disapprovals a response gets is not shown. It’s a private metric that Twitter tests to help it determine what content people want to see.
The feature disappeared in 2022, leaving some users confused by the button. Others, who have never had it, don’t really notice the difference. Twitter made no announcement about this change and did not say whether the tests were conclusive.
It is unclear whether the downvote feature will return or be expanded. Since Elon Musk bought Twitter in late 2022, many changes have been made to the platform and the business. In this chaos, the future of the downvote button has been lost.
Should Twitter allow you to disapprove tweets?
The idea of a dislike button has long been controversial: it works on some platforms like Reddit, but has never seen success on a platform like Instagram. It’s not always obvious why it works on some platforms and not others.
TikTok is the latest social media brand to use a dislike button on its comments, according to Forbes. TikTok hopes its dislike button is another way for users to provide feedback on the types of content they want to see. You can also tap and hold a TikTok and tap the “Not Interested” button to give feedback on TikToks that appear on your “For You” page.
This is a similar intention to what Twitter is trying to achieve with its dislike button: to provide an easy way of feedback, to better suggest tweets that they think are of interest to you.
With such limited testing, it’s hard to know if the dislike button actually works. Many argue that a dislike button only allows people to be mean to those they disagree with on social media and silence controversial or nuanced opinions by hating them to death.
No downvotes on Twitter yet
Twitter downvotes or dislikes may return one day, but for now, they don’t exist. With Twitter’s future and direction uncertain, testing disapprovals doesn’t seem to be a priority right now.
Once things calm down on Twitter, a “downvote” or “dislike” button can be a useful tool for suggesting content on the platform. Don’t be surprised if one day you notice a “dislike” button below the tweets on your timeline.
