Twitter's new policy change has sparked outrage on... Twitter.
The company replaced one of its core features on Tuesday, swapping out its "favorites" button for a "like" button. The feature is similar to the sentiment buttons on Facebook, Instagram and Periscope.
Twitter noted that the star icon for the favorites feature was confusing for newcomers and the change to a heart shape was sparked by a desire to make the platform easier and more rewarding to use.
"The heart, in contrast, is a universal symbol that resonates across languages, cultures, and time zones," the company said in a statement. "The heart is more expressive, enabling you to convey a range of emotions and easily connect with people. And in our tests, we found that people loved it."
Well, not everyone. Some users of the social media platform were not happy about the change.
Users noted several specific issues with the policy change:
- Favorites set Twitter apart from Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and other social media platforms.
- Favorites were used to bookmark Tweets and create a catalog of information.
- Favoriting something on Twitter is not the same thing as liking it.
However, Twitter's big move is less about the functionality of its platform and more about taking steps to gain back billions of dollars in lost market value.
While the company made $67 million in the third quarter, stock-based compensation for employees in the same quarter cost Twitter $166 million — 30 percent of the company's revenue.
Twitter stock spiked briefly after the company revealed the cosmetic shift, but dipped shortly after, giving back its gains.