Facebook is finally going to do it -- it's finally going to make a "Dislike" button.
The format of the button is still unclear, but the company has been working on the concept for a while and expects to roll it out soon.
"We have an idea that we're going to be ready to test soon, and depending on how that does, we'll roll it out more broadly," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during a townhall Q&A at Facebook's headquarters on Tuesday.
He said making something so "simple" is surprisingly complicated, but after years of people asking for the option to "dislike" a Facebook post, the company is finally ready.
Facebook had hesitated to launch a dislike button. But it has come to realize that people want "the ability to express empathy" on posts about unpleasant news.
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"If you're sharing something that is sad, whether it's something in current events, like the refugee crisis, or if a family member passed away, then it may not feel comfortable to 'like' that post," Zuckerberg explained.
"But your friends want to be able to express that they understand and relate to you, so I do think it's important to give people more options than just 'like' as a quick way to emote and share what they're feeling on a post," he added.
Facebook has been cautious in how it launched the new sentiment option because it was concerned about how it would be used.
"We didn't want to just build a dislike button because we don't want to turn Facebook into a forum where people are voting up or down on people's posts," he said.
Zuckerberg, who was recently named the most powerful person in business and media by Vanity Fair, has been holding town halls like these regularly. He says it's an opportunity for him to update Facebook (FB) users on how the company is working to make new services.
Later this month, Zuckerberg will host another townhall-style Q&A with a guest -- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The two will discuss "how communities can work together to address social and economic challenges."
The company will live-stream a video of the interview on Zuckerberg's Facebook page and Modi's.
