In July of last year, Twitter confirmed that it was testing the ability to downvote tweets, with selected iOS users given access to the functionality.

Now the ability to downvote is rolling out globally, but remains in the testing phase, as Twitter tries to identify what kind of content its users like and dislike.

Twitter’s Support account shared the news this week, noting that the feature would be available globally on the browser version of the social media platform, after which it would be making its way to mobile devices on Android and iOS.

We learned a lot about the types of replies you don't find relevant and we're expanding this test –– more of you on web and soon iOS and Android will have the option to use reply downvoting.

Downvotes aren’t public, but they'll help inform us of the content people want to see. https://t.co/g8LcTpQqDv pic.twitter.com/wm5MmdR4Xh

— Support (@Support) February 3, 2022

What is the most interesting element, is not the downvoting per se, but the fact that it is that downvoting will not be viable alongside the other metrics for a tweet, like retweets and likes are.

While we understand the fact that downvoting can be used to target users online, and the divisive elements that already exist on Twitter make such a feature potentially volatile, the lack of transparency is a little concerning.

We have seen a similar issue play out with YouTube and the fact that the number of dislikes do not display on a video for anyone other than the uploader.

As we have pointed out, this can be problematic as the dislike count can often serve as an indicator that the information contained in the video is not accurate or simply not as useful as the uploader may have intended.

Hopefully Twitter is cognisant of this, and plans to reveal downvotes in future, especially given how much misinformation currently circulates on the platform.

Whether the ability to downvote will move out of the test phase into a fully fledged feature remains to be seen, but given that it is currently being rolled out globally, the chances are high.

At the time of writing, the downvote button in replies is not appearing on the browser version of Twitter, so South Africans may need to wait a few days for it to materialise.

[Image – Photo by Akshar Dave on Unsplash]