Source: Twitter
Twitter wants more users to try out its new downvote replies feature by rolling it out globally. The company is testing it out with more users on the web, with plans to bring it to mobile soon. Unlike downvoting on sites like Reddit, the tallies aren't made public. Instead, Twitter uses it to tweak what replies to show users.
According to the company, the experiment so far resulted in users downvoting replies that they found offensive or irrelevant. "This experiment also revealed that downvoting is the most frequently used way for people to flag content they don't want to see," said Twitter. It could be seen as a replacement for muting or flagging a conversation as spam or irrelevant, which you have to dig through dropdown menus to access.
So far, Twitter thinks the feature "improves the quality of conversations" on the platform, suggesting it could roll out to all users in the future.
There are pros and cons to downvotes and dislikes. They can be a simple way to give feedback on content, but they can also be used for targeted harassment or silence dissenting opinions.
Would this be a valuable feature for you?