If you saw a new button next to the like button in the comments section of Instagram for a short while, your eyes didn’t deceive you. Instagram is testing the dislike button, which will allow users to dislike certain comments without anyone knowing you did so.
Threads user @crystalotv shared a screenshot on the platform Thursday evening showing the down arrow button sitting next to the like button in the comments section of her recent post. Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, announced the test in a Threads post on Friday, saying it’s being done in an effort to make the comments section of the multimedia-sharing platform more . He said the dislike button won’t keep track of how many people disliked a comment, as no one will know you disliked it in the first place, whether it’s the user who made that comment or the users reading and replying to said comment. However, disliked comments may eventually be downranked.
“Some of you may have seen that we’re testing a new button next to comments on Instagram – this gives people a private way to signal that they don’t feel good about that particular comment,” Mosseri said. “I want to be clear: this is a test, there is no dislike count, nor will anyone know if you tap the button. Eventually, we may integrate this signal into comments ranking to move disliked comments lower down. Our hope is that this might help make comments more friendly on Instagram.”
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Instagram testing a dislike button to make it so that a comment can be disliked without the commenter’s knowledge is a little similar to Discord’s Ignore button, which acts as a covert block button that allows users to ignore others without having to deal with the fallout of the ignored person finding out about it in the world. Mosseri praised this new feature as the “soupped up ‘restrict’ on Instagram and Threads” in a previous post on Monday.
It’s currently unknown when the new dislike button will be fully available on Instagram.