Twitter announced that it’s expanding tests on its downvote option for Tweet replies, with more users on both iOS and Android likely able to see a new down arrow on their Tweet responses, providing more ways to stimulate more relevant discussion on each comment.
As Twitter explains:
“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.”
Deep Down
Twitter initially launched testing on its downvotes exclusively on iOS last July, which primarily had many users see a ‘Dislike’ option for Tweet replies, which, according to Twitter, was a little ambiguous
“We’re hoping to better understand what people believe are relevant replies, and how that matches up to what Twitter suggests as most the relevant replies under a Tweet.”
The idea is that these insights would help improve Twitter’s algorithms in displaying the best replies under each Tweet. On that note, these were never meant to be a measure of people’s responses to a stated opinion nor were they designed as ways to bury ‘Bad’ or distasteful Tweets, as in Reddit’s case. Ironically, however, the aforementioned is also how they work and what they’ll be used for.
Theoretically, Twitter’s downvote system is designed to push down spam and other junk comments, but in actuality, people downvote things that they find personally offensive or just don’t want to see. This is where certain concerns arise as this could be seen as a form of censorship, especially if more users begin using the option to blitz dissenting opinions.
Then again, what if that’s what users want? What if people want to intentionally use the downvote button on replies that they would want to visibly get rid of? Though the concept was not designed to moderate replies as such, it may end up as a way for Twitter to learn what type of things people love to hate, potentially improving the general quality of on-platform conversations, minus the whole censorship issue thing.
Perhaps unavoidably, some might see this as Twitter’s version of ‘Shadowbanning’, with their replies getting overall less exposure and engagement as a result of downvotes. Then again, Tweet authors wouldn’t be able to exactly see how the process would impact their comments as there’s currently no way to view response rankings within the whole reply chain. Furthermore, downvotes are only currently made available to only replies and not general Tweets, reducing overall impacts.
The Wrap
It’s a fairly interesting test. What’s more interesting is that Twitter apparently decided to template its downvote process after Reddit’s model, which would naturally have been a highly-contrasting option given that Reddit is more of a forum-based thread platform that mainly uses and shares memes, as opposed to being a news-sharing site. Even the button’s color is similar – Orange.
In essence, Twitter downvotes aim to function just as Reddit’s does, in that they’re meant to ‘bump up’ the most engaging and interesting discussion points in each thread, boosting user engagement rates. If successful, Twitter might even expand the option to all Tweets, providing another layer of interaction on the platform.
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