Twitter to Globally Introduce Downvote Replies Feature

Twitter is working to introduce the downvote replies feature to everyone, the company announced on Friday. The downvotes feature has been under testing on select iOS devices since last year but now the company is bringing the test feature to its users on a global scale.

The new downvote replies feature will appear on the web version of Twitter before being released to Android and iOS. However, the feature will be slightly different to what’s available on Reddit as users will not be able to see the number of downvotes.

The option will only show the number of upvotes to a comment on the micro-blogging site and it is basically meant to help Twitter algorithm better understand what kind of replies are relevant to its users to make them more visibility on the platform.

Twitter said that initial testing of the downvote replies feature helped understand that majority of users clicked the down arrow in their replies “either because the reply was perceived as offensive, or because they perceived it as not relevant, or both.” The company said that downvoting was the more frequently used way for people to flag content they didn’t want to see on their feed.

“People who have tested downvoting agree it improves the quality of conversations on Twitter. We’re excited to see how others think of it as it becomes available to more of you,” the company said in its Tweet. The new feature may become permanent option on the platform since the social media giant has announced it publicly.

However, there are many people who have shown concerns over the downvotes feature on Twitter as they think it might be negatively used to mute dissenting views.

Read more: Twitter Articles to Allow Tweets Without Character Limit.

Follow INCPAK on Facebook / Twitter / Instagram for updates.