Facebook dislike button might be on its way, says Zuckerberg

Company needs to work out a way of stopping it becoming a way of criticising people

A videographer shoots the side of Facebook's Like Button logo displayed at the entrance of the Facebook Headquarters in Menlo Park, California. (KIMIHIRO HOSHINO | AFP | Getty Images)

Facebook is thinking about introducing a dislike button, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said, but is worried that introducing it would become a way of ‘demeaning’ people.

The dislike button is Facebook’s most requested feature, according to Zuckerberg — and people’s desire to get one has led to plenty of fake, viral posts on the network about how to get one.

The company is trying to find a way for people to express the fact that they’re sad about a status without it looking like people are ‘demeaning’ people’s posts, he told an audience at Facebook’s headquarters in California. He said that the button needs to be a ‘force for good’.

"One of things we've thought about for quite a while is what's the right way to make it so that people can easily express a broader range of emotions," Zuckerberg said.

People feel uncomfortable pressing the ‘like’ button in response to sad news, he said, and the company is trying to find a way for people to say “that isn’t good. That's not something that we think is good for the world”, he said.