Trial among users in Australia and New Zealand allows people to give comments an up or down vote

Facebook is trialling new technology on some Australian and New Zealand users which allows people to give comments an “up” or “down” vote.

A Facebook spokeswoman said the trial was in the early test stages and no decision had been made on expanding it to the global community of 2.2 billion users. A decision would be made after the company had gauged whether users found the new tool useful and productive, she said.

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“Facebook is a place for free expression, but we also recognise that there should be a way for people tell us and each other which comments are most thoughtful and useful. To that end, we’re running a test that introduces an upvote and downvote action for comments on large public page posts,” the spokeswoman said.

“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. This does not affect your personal News Feed or interactions with friends.”

The spokeswoman said the new feature was not an official “dislike” button but an additional feature, and Facebook would continue to give users a suite of emojis to express emotions and reactions; such as laughing, love and anger.

Facebook did not say how long the trial of the new technology, which is similar to a feature on Reddit, would last or how many users it was being tested on.

Only some users in Australia and New Zealand reported the new technology being available on their accounts.

When a user with access to the trial hovers over a comment posted on a public page, a small window appears, explaining the new feature.

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An information box reads “support better comments”, and explains how to give a comment an “up” vote.

“Press the comment up if you think the comment is helpful or insightful,” it says.

Another box titled “stop bad comments” is about how and why to give a comment a no vote, illustrated by a downward pointing arrow.

“Press the down button if a comment has bad intentions or is disrespectful. It’s still ok to disagree in a respectful way.”

Facebook also tested the comment voting options on a small number of users in the US in February.



