TikTok trials new dislike button

The social media giant is looking to give users more self-policing power. 

Good vibes only 

It’s an almighty task trying to keep the peace on social media – but TikTok will be damned if it doesn’t try. After implementing a dislike button for videos on users’ feeds, which they can click if they aren’t interested, now the app is going one step further. In a move that will help TikTok to manage the negative side of socials, users can ‘dislike’ comments on videos. 

This tool for community feedback should help tackle some of the high volumes of negative content that the TikTok team have to sift through. In its latest transparency report, TikTok says it removed over 85 million videos between October and December 2021 for violations. If that’s the videos – just imagine the comments.  

No hard feelings  

Dislike buttons on social media haven’t always been popular. In broadening the range of reactions users can send one another, some social media firms often appear to believe that any reactions – positive or negative – are excellent for creating viral content. But TikTok’s dislike button, for the moment at least, remains anonymous, and users won’t know if their comment has been disliked. 

A step in the right direction for TikTok, then? Letting users flag when they see something inappropriate, without causing a new flurry of comments, could be the tonic to a toxic comment section.