Zuckerberg: Facebook is working on a dislike button

Mark Zuckerberg 

Facebook is working on a 'dislike' button, the company's co-founder and chief Mark Zuckerberg has announced.He made the announcement during a Q&A session, which was broadcast live on Facebook from the company's headquarters in California.

People have asked about the 'dislike' button for many years, and probably hundreds of people have asked about this, and today is a special day because today is the day that I actually get to say we are working on it, and are very close to shipping a test of it.

– MARK ZUCKERBERG

He said the company had held off on a Dislike button to avoid it becoming a Reddit-style system that encouraged 'upvoting' and 'downvoting'

Zuckerberg added: "That doesn't seem like the kind of community that we want to create: You don't want to go through the process of sharing some moment that was important to you in your day and have someone 'downvote' it."

Instead he said the new feature will allow users to "express empathy" with their friends on Facebook.

"If you are sharing something that is sad... then it might not feel comfortable to 'like' that post", he added.