People Are Flipping Out Over A Report That Twitter Plans To Remove The ‘Like’ Button

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Twitter is reportedly doing away with the ‘like’ feature and users are as baffled as they are angry. A recent report by The Telegraph claims that last week, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey admitted at a Twitter event that he hated the heart-shaped button and that it would be getting rid of it “soon”. The move is being implemented in an effort to “improve the quality of debate.”

There have been conflicting reports as to to accuracy of The Telegraph’s report. BuzzFeed News’ Katie Notopoulos tweeted, “Last week Twitter met with reporters (including BuzzFeed) to show off several potential new features, this was not mentioned.” Vanity Fair contributor Maya Kosoff also tweeted, “this story is based on one quote and PR appears to be mostly denying it. it is not worth getting fired up over i promise.”

In response to the report, Twitter posted a cryptic response that doesn’t clear up much.

Regardless of the accuracy of the report, it gave Twitter users a place to congregate and voice their disapproval of the proposal. Many have accused Twitter of not doing enough to ban Nazis or crack down on hate speech, and view axing the like button as not only counter-productive, but besides-the-point.

[h/t Complex]

 

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Matt’s love of writing was born during a sixth grade assembly when it was announced that his essay titled “Why Drugs Are Bad” had taken first prize in D.A.R.E.’s grade-wide contest. The anti-drug people gave him a $50 savings bond for his brave contribution to crime-fighting, and upon the bond’s maturity 10 years later, he used it to buy his very first bag of marijuana.