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Facebook is building a dislike button, CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a public question-and-answer session on Tuesday. What he actually said is that the company is working on something along the lines of a dislike button, although it won鈥檛 be nearly that simple.

鈥淧eople have asked about the dislike button for many years,鈥� he said, as quoted by Wired. 鈥淲e鈥檝e finally heard you and we鈥檙e working on this and we will deliver .鈥�

Predictably, this sent the tech press into a frenzy. Nothing brings in Facebook likes and shares 鈥� the new currency of online media 鈥� like a story about, well, Facebook likes and shares. Business Insider led the charge with a typically breathless headline and post: 鈥�.鈥�

Pretty much every other publication on the planet scrambled to reap its own share of the social traffic pie.

I dislike being the bearer of bad news, but whatever Facebook is building, it probably won鈥檛 be the dislike button its more jaded users have been clamouring for.

Zuckerberg has been teasing us about a dislike button for years 鈥� and reaping a wave of free publicity each time 鈥� but he has always couched his statements carefully. In December 2014, he flat-out stated that the company that gives people a way to disapprove of one another鈥檚 posts. (I explained in some depth at the time .) Rather, he said, Facebook was exploring ways to allow users to convey fuzzy sentiments like surprise, laughter or empathy.

Expressions of empathy

That鈥檚 very similar to what he said on Tuesday, when he asserted that 鈥渨hat they really want is . If you鈥檙e expressing something sad鈥� it may not feel comfortable to 鈥榣ike鈥� that post, but your friends and people want to be able to express that they understand.鈥�

What that will actually look like remains unclear. A Facebook spokesperson declined to offer specifics on the company鈥檚 plans for new buttons beyond what Zuckerberg said. But it almost certainly won鈥檛 be as simple as adding a dislike button beside the like button, so that people can upvote and downvote one another鈥檚 posts, Reddit-style.

If I had to guess, I鈥檇 say the most likely possibility is this: Facebook will give you the option, when you post something, to enable your friends and followers to respond with a button other than 鈥渓ike鈥�, such as 鈥渟ympathise鈥�, 鈥渁gree鈥� or, I don鈥檛 know, 鈥渉ug鈥� 鈥� but only for that specific post. It鈥檚 possible the word 鈥渄islike鈥� will be among those options, although I still think that鈥檚 unlikely.

If I鈥檓 right, then people won鈥檛 have the option to 鈥渄islike鈥� or even 鈥渟ympathise鈥� with posts that haven鈥檛 been set up by their authors to enable those responses. So you won鈥檛 be able to 鈥渄islike鈥� your uncle鈥檚 polemical political posts unless he鈥檚 gone out of his way to allow you to do so.

My colleague Torie Bosch has argued, rather persuasively, that , because its like button has already taken on a more flexible meaning than simple approval. Nonetheless, it makes sense for Facebook to consider some alternatives, because understanding when people are expressing things like sympathy, outrage or laughter rather than approval will help Facebook fine-tune its news-feed algorithms.

More nuanced responses means more data for Facebook to mine and monetise 鈥� and if you dislike that, then you are on the wrong social network.

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