Bluesky to Introduce Private ‘Dislike’ Feature After Reaching 40 Million Users
Open-source social platform Bluesky, a popular alternative to X (formerly Twitter), is preparing to roll out a “dislike” feature for the first time after surpassing 40 million users earlier this week.
According to Bluesky, the upcoming tool will serve as a feedback mechanism designed to fine-tune content recommendations and help the platform better identify the types of posts users prefer not to see. The company adds that dislikes may also subtly influence reply rankings, decreasing the visibility of low-quality or irrelevant responses.
Unlike traditional public reactions, Bluesky’s dislikes will remain private and will primarily affect users within one’s “social neighborhood” — a term the platform uses to describe naturally forming clusters of people with similar interactions or interests. The company is developing technology to map these communities more effectively.
“By emphasizing replies from people closer to your social neighborhood, we can make discussions feel more familiar, relevant, and less prone to miscommunication,” the company explained.
While the feature is in development, Bluesky has not yet announced a release date for the dislike option.
Several social media companies have tested similar tools with varying outcomes. Facebook experimented with a dislike function in 2015 and 2018 aimed at ranking public comments and curbing spam, but ultimately abandoned the idea. X (then Twitter) also trialed a dislike feature in 2024 to improve comment ranking, though concerns about bullying and coordinated misuse led to its discontinuation.
In contrast, TikTok introduced a private dislike button in 2022 to help filter out spam and abusive comments — a feature still active today. Reddit’s long-standing downvote system continues to play a core role in shaping its community-driven content ranking.
Bluesky’s move comes as the platform experiences rapid growth, with its user count more than doubling over the past year — a surge of over 500% in 2024 — fueled in part by dissatisfaction with Elon Musk’s management of X and his controversial decisions regarding the platform’s direction.
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