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like button A like button, like option, or recommend button, is a feature in communication software such as social networking services, Internet forums, news websites and blogs where the user can express that they like, enjoy or support certain content. In ...
on the
social network A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for ...
ing website
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
was first enabled on February 9, 2009. The like button enables users to easily interact with status updates, comments, photos and videos, links shared by friends, and advertisements. Once clicked by a user, the designated content appears in the News Feeds of that user's friends, and the button also displays the number of other users who have liked the content, including a full or partial list of those users. The like button was extended to comments in June 2010. After extensive testing and years of questions from the public about whether it had an intention to incorporate a "Dislike" button, Facebook officially rolled out "Reactions" to users worldwide on February 24, 2016, letting users long-press on the like button for an option to use one of five pre-defined emotions, including "Love", "Haha", "Wow", "Sad", or "Angry". Reactions were also extended to comments in May 2017, and had a major graphical overhaul in April 2019. The like button is one of Facebook's social plug-ins, in which the button can be placed on third-party websites. Its use centers around a form of an
advertising network An online advertising network or ad network is a company that connects advertisers to websites that want to host advertisements. The key function of an ad network is an aggregation of ad supply from publishers and matching it with advertiser's d ...
, in which it gathers information about which users visit what websites. This form of functionality, a sort of
web beacon A web beaconAlso called web bug, tracking bug, tag, web tag, page tag, tracking pixel, pixel tag, 1×1 GIF, or clear GIF. is a technique used on web pages and email to unobtrusively (usually invisibly) allow checking that a user has accessed ...
, has been significantly criticized for privacy. Privacy activist organizations have urged Facebook to stop its data collection through the plug-in, and governments have launched investigations into the activity for possible privacy law violations. Facebook has stated that it anonymizes the information after three months, and that the data collected is not shared or sold to third parties. Additionally, the like button's potential use as a measurement of popularity has caused some companies to sell likes through fake Facebook accounts, which in turn have sparked complaints from some companies advertising on Facebook that have received an abundance of fake likes that have distorted proper user metrics. Facebook states in its Terms of Service agreement that users may only create one personal page, and it has ongoing efforts against the spread of fake accounts.


Use on Facebook

The like button is a
feature Feature may refer to: Computing * Feature (CAD), could be a hole, pocket, or notch * Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob * Feature (software design) is an intentional distinguishing characteristic of a software item ...
of social networking service Facebook, where users can like content such as status updates, comments, photos and videos, links shared by friends, and advertisements. The feature was activated February 9, 2009. It is also a feature of the Facebook Platform that enables participating websites to display a
button A button is a fastener that joins two pieces of fabric together by slipping through a loop or by sliding through a buttonhole. In modern clothing and fashion design, buttons are commonly made of plastic but also may be made of metal, wood, o ...
that enables sharing the site's content with friends. When a user clicks the like button, the content appears in the News Feeds of that user's friends. The button also displays the number of users who liked each piece of content, and may show a full or partial list of those users. The ability to like users' comments was added in June 2010, and the ability to react with one of five pre-defined emotions, including "Love", "Haha", "Wow", "Sad", or "Angry", was added in May 2017.
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
describes "liking" as an "easy way to let people know that you enjoy it without leaving a comment". After more than a year in testing, which included October 2015 availability in Ireland and Spain, Facebook officially rolled out "Reactions" to users worldwide on February 24, 2016. The feature allows users to long-press on the like button to get options between five pre-defined emotions ranging from "Love", "Haha", "Wow", "Sad", and "Angry". In June 2017, in celebration of Pride month, Facebook introduced a rainbow flag as part of its Reactions options. The design of the reactions was updated in April 2019, with more frames comprising the icons' animations as well as a general graphical overhaul. The reactions were first shown off by reverse engineering expert Jane Manchun Wong on
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
, with mixed reactions both as replies and on Facebook itself. In September 2019 it was revealed that Facebook is conducting a trial in Australia to hide the like count on posts. In 2020 during the COVID-19 outbreak, a "Care" reaction was added to Facebook.


“Dislike” button

During a public Q&A session in December 2014, CEO Mark Zuckerberg answered questions regarding the public's wish to have a "dislike" button on Facebook. Zuckerberg said: "There’s something that’s just so simple about the ‘like’ button’ ... but giving people more ways of expressing more emotions would be powerful. We need to figure out the right way to do it so it ends up being a force for good, not a force for bad and demeaning the posts that people are putting out there." While suggesting the comment field for users who feel the like button isn't appropriate, he said that Facebook had "no plans" to introduce a dislike button. In a new Q&A in September 2015, Zuckerberg said that Facebook was working on an "empathy button", such as for showing support to victims of tragedies. He further commented that "People aren’t looking for an ability to downvote other people's posts. What they really want is to be able to express empathy. Not every moment is a good moment, right? And if you are sharing something that is sad, whether it’s something in current events like the refugee crisis that touches you or if a family member passed away, then it might not feel comfortable to Like that post." In February 2016, Facebook announced its "Reactions", offering different ways for users to interact with posts through the like button, including "Love", "Haha", "Wow", "Sad", and "Angry", with the later addition of "Care" in March 2020 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
.


Public

The Like button is one of Facebook's social plug-ins, which are features for websites outside Facebook as part of its Open Graph. Speaking at the company's F8 developer conference on April 21, 2010, the day of the launch, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said "We are building a Web where the default is social". The like button is implemented similarly to an
advertising network An online advertising network or ad network is a company that connects advertisers to websites that want to host advertisements. The key function of an ad network is an aggregation of ad supply from publishers and matching it with advertiser's d ...
, in that as more sites participate, Facebook is given a vast amount of information about who visits which websites and when. When loading a website that has the like button enabled, the user's
web browser A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used o ...
connects to Facebook's servers, which record which website was visited, and by what user. A week after the release of the social plugins, Facebook announced that 50,000 websites had installed the features, including the like button. Five months later, the number had increased to 2 million websites. In December 2010 and in the United States,
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...
's Bing search engine partnered with Facebook to identify which links in search results have been "liked" by the searcher's Facebook friends.


Criticism


Fake "likes"

The number of "likes" on Facebook can serve as a measurement of interest and/or popularity in a particular brand, product or personality, though there have also been reports of the "overblown importance" of likes. Due to social media's influence in shaping reputations, there exist companies specializing in selling "likes" from fake accounts. This has caused issues for companies advertising on Facebook, due to receiving an abundance of likes without credibility that distort actual user metrics. Facebook's Terms of Service agreement states that users are only allowed to have one personal page, and it has an ongoing "war" against fake accounts. A May 2015 estimate put the number of fake accounts at 170 million, and a Symantec study in September 2011 found that 15% of 3.5 million video posts were made through fake likes.


Low reach

A content analysis highlights that the “like” reaction is likely to decrease the organic reach of the given Facebook post as a “brake effect”. Facebook users often apply this interaction button, perhaps this is why Facebook may use "like" reaction as a negative element in algorithmic content ranking.


Tracking

Social network A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for ...
like buttons on websites other than their own are often used as
web beacon A web beaconAlso called web bug, tracking bug, tag, web tag, page tag, tracking pixel, pixel tag, 1×1 GIF, or clear GIF. is a technique used on web pages and email to unobtrusively (usually invisibly) allow checking that a user has accessed ...
s to track user activities for
targeted advertising Targeted advertising is a form of advertising, including online advertising, that is directed towards an audience with certain traits, based on the product or person the advertiser is promoting. These traits can either be demographic with a focu ...
such as behavioral targeting combined with personally identifiable information, and may be considered a breach of Internet privacy. In June 2010, the
American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...
,
Center for Democracy and Technology Centre for Democracy & Technology (CDT) is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organisation that advocates for digital rights and freedom of expression. CDT seeks to promote legislation that enables individuals to use the internet for pu ...
, Center for Digital Democracy,
Consumer Action Consumer Action is a nonprofit, consumer education and advocacy center, serving consumers in the United States. Founded in 1971, the mission of Consumer Action is to help individual consumers assert their rights in the marketplace and to advance ...
, Consumer Watchdog, Electronic Frontier Foundation,
Electronic Privacy Information Center Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) is an independent nonprofit research center in Washington, D.C. EPIC's mission is to focus public attention on emerging privacy and related human rights issues. EPIC works to protect privacy, freedom ...
, Privacy Activism, Privacy Lives, and Privacy Rights Clearinghouse sent an open letter to Facebook requesting that it "Do not retain data about specific visitors to third party sites that incorporate "social plugins" or the "like" button, unless the site visitor chooses to interact with those tools." Multiple governments have also launched investigations into the activity. In September 2010, then-
Privacy Commissioner of Canada The privacy commissioner of Canada (french: Commissaire à la protection de la vie privée du Canada) is a non-partisan ombudsman and officer of the Parliament of Canada. The commissioner investigates complaints regarding violations of the fed ...
Jennifer Stoddart Jennifer Stoddart (born 1949) was the sixth Privacy Commissioner of Canada. Early life and education Stoddart was born in 1949 in Toronto. In 1967 she graduated from Neuchâtel Junior College in Switzerland. Fluent in five languages, she studied ...
announced new investigations against Facebook, alleging that the like button's appearance outside Facebook violates Canada's privacy laws. In August 2011, the German Data Protection Commissioner’s Office ordered federal agencies to stop using Facebook and remove the like button from their websites. In November 2015, the government of Belgium gave Facebook 48 hours to cease tracking people who were not signed into Facebook, or else receive a daily fine of EUR€250,000, to which Facebook said it would appeal. In its defense, Facebook told '' CNET'' in June 2010 that information on who visited which websites is anonymized after three months, and is not shared with or sold to third parties.


Free speech

In 2009, Sheriff B.J. Roberts of Hampton, Virginia fired several employees who had "liked" his rival's Facebook page during the sheriff's election. One of the employees fought back in court, with the argument that a "like" should be protected by the
First Amendment to the United States Constitution The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents the government from making laws that regulate an establishment of religion, or that prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the freedom of speech, the ...
about
free speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recog ...
. In September 2013, a federal appeals court ruled that "likes" are a form of protected speech under the amendment, commenting that "On the most basic level, clicking on the 'like' button literally causes to be published the statement that the User 'likes' something, which is itself a substantive statement. In the context of a political campaign’s page, the meaning that the user approves of the candidacy whose page is being liked is unmistakable. That a user may use a single mouse click to produce that message that he likes the page instead of typing the same message with several individual key strokes is of no constitutional significance."


Declining organic reach for company pages

In 2014, Social@Ogilvy, a division of the advertising agency
Ogilvy & Mather Ogilvy is a New York City-based British advertising, marketing, and public relations agency. It was founded in 1850 by Edmund Mather as a London-based advertising agency, agency. In 1964, the firm became known as Ogilvy & Mather after merging wit ...
, published a widely cited
white paper A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. A white pape ...
titled "Facebook Zero: Considering Life After the Demise of Organic Reach", documenting Facebook's restriction of
content Content or contents may refer to: Media * Content (media), information or experience provided to audience or end-users by publishers or media producers ** Content industry, an umbrella term that encompasses companies owning and providing mas ...
published from businesses' and brands' Pages. The zero refers to the projected percentage of any given Page's followers, or "Likers", who are able to see posts from that Page in their personal News Feeds. The paper's author observes that adjustments in Facebook algorithms have reduced organic reach for non-paying business pages (that have at least 500,000 Likes) from 16 percent in 2012 down to 2 percent in February 2014.


Ability for minors to "like" advertising

A lawsuit was filed in 2010 claiming that Facebook should not allow minors to "like" advertising. Facebook said the suit was "completely without merit".


Intimate user details

Research shows that Facebook likes can be automatically processed to infer intimate details about an individual, such as sexual orientation, political and religious views, race, substance use, intelligence, and personality. Effectively, individual views and preferences can be revealed even if they were not directly expressed or indicated by liking associated content.


"Surfbook" legal action

In February 2013, legal action was brought against Facebook by patent-holding company Rembrandt Social Media. Rembrandt owns several patents taken out by Dutch programmer Joannes Jozef Everardus van der Meer, who died in 2004. These include patents filed in 1998 relating to Van der Meer's fledgling social network Surfbook, including, according to legal papers filed by the patent holder, the ability for users to approve data using a "like" button.


Limited geographical reach of "Pride" reaction

In June 2017, in celebration of Pride month, Facebook introduced a rainbow flag as part of its Reactions options. However, access to the rainbow reaction depends on location. For "major markets with Pride celebrations", the Pride reaction is available by default, while in other areas, "liking" Facebook's LGBTQ page enables the feature. In areas where homosexuality is illegal, the feature is not available at all. This sparked debate, with Jillian York of ''
Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character t ...
''s ''Motherboard'' writing that "If Facebook’s goal is to make the world more open and connected, it could start by treating queer communities with equality", and Tristan Greene of ''The Next Web'' writing that "What I don’t understand, Facebook, is why you’re limiting these things at all? Is there a premium on memory where you can only have so many rainbows before we have to shut Facebook down in the Eastern Hemisphere?" In a blog post, Facebook stated that the different levels of access was necessary "because this is a new experience we’ve been testing", although user feedback has questioned this line of thinking by pointing to earlier temporary reactions, including dedicated Halloween and Mother's Day reactions, that were available to all users despite not everyone celebrating.


See also

*
Emoticon An emoticon (, , rarely , ), short for "emotion icon", also known simply as an emote, is a pictorial representation of a facial expression using characters—usually punctuation marks, numbers, and letters—to express a person's feelings, ...
* Justin Rosenstein *
Thumb signal A thumb signal, usually described as a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, is a common hand gesture achieved by a closed fist held with the thumb extended upward or downward in approval or disapproval, respectively. These gestures have become metapho ...


References

{{Facebook navbox Facebook Social software Software features Computer-related introductions in 2009