This was disclosed by the founder and chief executive of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, during a Q&A session held at the US Company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California.
Zuckerberg acknowledged that “like” is not always appropriate for some posts – about a tragic news event, for example – when people might want to express empathy.
Speaking at the event which was streamed live online, Zuckerberg said that people have been asking for a “dislike” button on the social media site for years.
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However, he said the company is working on it, and that the new button will be ready to be tested soon and could be rolled out as well, depending on how well it is able to function.
“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,” he said.
The company’s now-iconic “like” button was introduced in 2009.