Users in Ireland and Spain will have the opportunity to use six different reactions to express how they
feel about different posts on their news feeds.
These new emoji and text icons include “Like”, “Haha”, “Wow”, “Sad”, “Angry” and “Yeah”.
For many years Facebook users have been requesting for more options.
Mark Zuckerberg,Facebook’s CEO announced a few weeks ago that the company had been researching alternatives
to the “Like” button.
The request for a “dislike” button has been declined because there are fears that this could be used in acts of trolling and bullying.
Ireland and Spain have been chosen to test the new options because,
according to Facebook’s Product Manager Chris Toswill the two countries are very interconnected.
The countries will be closely monitored and based on the results, Facebook will make any neccessary changes.
Anti-bullying was stated to be a priority of the company but that they were confident that these new buttons would not be used in acts of bullying.
Gareth Lambe, head of Facebook here in Ireland stated that: “It’s exciting that Ireland’s Facebook community will be one of the first to participate in testing these new ways to express reactions.
“With over two million Irish people actively logging onto Facebook every day, they’ll now have more ways to show how they feel – whether that’s happy, sad, funny or thought-provoking.”