Twitter extends downvote test to world, web and Android

Twitter users worldwide will have access to a downvote test, which the company uses to determine whether downvotes help users see relevant tweets. The downvotes are not seen by others, but are used by the platform’s algorithm.

The downvotes only work for comments on tweets and appear to the right of the like button. The number of likes is shown, the number of downvotes is not. Twitter started last july with a test for this, which was only available on iOS at the time. The company is now expanding the test to the whole world and says that web users can access the test. Later, Android users should also be able to use the downvote button. It is not clear whether this will make the test available to all users or whether it will remain with a part of all users worldwide.

The social medium also details what it has learned from the test so far. For example, a large proportion of users say they downvote a comment because it is insulting or offensive, or because they find the comment irrelevant. The downvote button is also the option users most often use to indicate that they do not want to see certain content, according to Twitter. The participants also say that the downvote button improves the quality of conversations on Twitter.

With the announcement, Twitter shares an example of how the downvote button works in practice. For example, someone asks for recommendations for a restaurant in New York. A substantive response with twelve likes appears above a response that says that New York is overrated. The last comment has more likes than the first comment with 37 likes, but because the overrated comment has been downvoted, it appears below the substantive comment.