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Some of our team has noticed a new Twitter feature in which you can “downvote” Tweet replies from a mobile device.

Twitter has recently acknowledged it’s testing this feature in an effort to improve relevancy of replies:

Some of you on iOS may see different options to up or down vote on replies. We're testing this to understand the types of replies you find relevant in a convo, so we can work on ways to show more of them. Your downvotes aren’t public, while your upvotes will be shown as likes. pic.twitter.com/hrBfrKQdcY

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 21, 2021

Here are some of the key aspects of this test that have been shared so far:

• Downvotes aren’t public (but Upvotes are currently shown as Likes). Only the voter can see what they have downvoted. Not even the original Tweet’s author will know who downvoted anything.

• Votes won’t change the order of replies (for now?). Twitter points out that this is not a “Dislike” button.

The feature has been compared to Upvoting and Downvoting on Reddit, which has long been key to the “Karma”-based functionality of that website.

I’m not sure how I feel about Twitter testing downvoting for replies. Twitter is one step closer to turning into Reddit 🙃 pic.twitter.com/jeW0NL40kp

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) October 13, 2021

Why it Matters

Twitter has been on a mission to better understand and improve discourse on its platform. While this seems like a step in the direction of allowing a true “Dislike” button, which would decrease the visibility of downvoted replies, it’s not yet clear if that will be the eventual outcome here.

According to NBC News, one academic at the University of Michigan sees this test as a way to potentially clean up discourse by providing a quick reaction button instead of forcing people to communicate their dislike through a new Tweet:

“My guess is that what they’re trying to do is give people a more clinical way of expressing their distaste for something on social media. Thumbs-down is better than [commenting], ‘Take a dirt nap.’”

— Scott W. Campbell

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• Facebook Eases Social Issues Ads Policy to Allow Product-Focused Ads to Run Without a Disclaimer (Social Media Today)

• Get lost in Layers, now on Snap Map (Snap blog)

• Introducing AR Experiences for Video Calls on Messenger (FB blog)

• Introducing Pinterest TV (Pinterest blog)

• Calling All Hackers: Introducing Bug Bounties on Clubhouse (Clubhouse blog)

• How To Record A Room On Clubhouse & See Total Listener Count (Clubhouse blog)

Stories & Analysis

• LinkedIn Report: What Candidates Want, What Companies Need, and What's Changing (LinkedIn blog)

• Twitter Blue: What to know about the subscription and features, including undo tweets (CNET)

• Social Media Firms ‘On the Hook’ Under New Aussie Defamation Law (Bloomberg)

• Why Facebook changed its name to Meta (Quartz)

Looking for More Social Media Help?

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