Social media giant Twitter is currently experimenting with a new feature- the downvote button.
Twitter says that the feature will be expanding worldwide as a test feature before they consider implementing it in an official update. In a statement, the company said that they are still trying to understand how the ‘reply downvoting’ could help them surface relevant content in the platform.
Reddit, a community platform, has had the downvote feature since it launched in 2005. Facebook considered adding one but then didn’t go forward with it.
Downvoting could potentially change the order of tweets on the app and site. However, Twitter said that downvotes are private and won’t change the order of replies. Experts say that downvoting can improve overall conversation quality, but at the same time could be used to push down marginalized groups. Twitter said that reception for the downvote feature was mostly positive, with early testers agreeing that it improved conversation quality.
