Twitter is reportedly thinking about removing the like button from the social network. The social media giant via a tweet said it’s in the ‘early stages’ of considering whether or not to remove the like button, which appears as a heart icon, as part of an overall redesign of the platform. The comes after CEO Jack Dorsey reportedly said at an event last week that he would get rid of the heart-shaped button ‘soon,’ according to the Telegraph.
The company is thinking of removing the like button to help increase positive, healthy conversations on the platform. It’s only one of the few things the company is working on to help users have more positive conversations on the platform., although some of those features are quite promising, removing the like button doesn’t sound like a good idea at all.
At the WIRED25 summit this month, Dorsey further detailed his thoughts on the like feature, saying he was unhappy with the ‘big like button with the heart on it.’ Dorsey stopped short of saying the firm would remove the feature, however.
Some have noted that Twitter may get rid of the like button and, in its place, emphasize the ‘Bookmark’ feature rolled out earlier this year. The Bookmark tool lets users flag tweets to be added to their bookmark tab for future reading.
A user’s list of bookmarked tweets can be viewed by anyone. As is typical, Twitter users weren’t happy about the suggestion of removing the site’s Like button.
This isn’t the first time Dorsey has talked about tinkering with the Like button. Back in August, Dorsey said he was experimenting with new features on Twitter and redesigning features, including the “like” button. Twitter has gradually introduced new features to its platform over the last several months, while phasing out others, as it works to improve the ‘health’ of its platform. The firm continues to face big concerns around the proliferation of hate speech, harassment and other toxic user behavior on the site. It has taken several steps to crackdown on hate speech and prevent users who violate its terms of use from attempting to circumvent its suspension policies by creating new accounts.
As the Telegraph piece referenced, Like buttons can encourage addiction to the platforms as people seek external validation, according to many psychology studies. The incentives encouraged by a like button are certainly being questioned by Twitter, but as the company stated today, the button will still stick around for now. Nothing can be said for sure as of right now, but a lot of changes are to be expected in the coming days.
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