About the Unlike Feature on Facebook

By David Nield

Clicking "Like" is an indication of your approval on Facebook.
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Any content you've liked on Facebook can be unliked just as easily. Your likes appear on your Timeline, affect the content you see in your news feed and can be viewed by your friends, so it's important that you like only content you're really a fan of and use the unlike feature to remove your mark of appreciation anywhere else.

Like and Unlike

As the associated icon suggests, likes enable you to give a thumbs up to any activity on Facebook, whether it's a status update, a new relationship, a photo, a check-in or anything else. Click "Like" and the link immediately changes to Unlike; click again to remove the like. Choosing to unlike something removes all trace of the like. There's no option on Facebook to unlike something without liking it first.

How Likes Work

There are two different types of likes on Facebook. The first is likes you give to your friends' activities like comments or pictures. The likes you give out there create a notification that your friend sees and help Facebook work out which contacts you're most interested in and who should be given priority in your news feed. The second type is likes you give to pages -- for example, brands, movies, books and places. These likes may sign you up for updates from that page, and may affect the pages that your friends are encouraged to like.

Where Likes Appear

If you like something posted by one of your friends, such as a comment or photo, then anyone with permission to see the post can see a list of people who've liked it. If you like a specific page on Facebook, such as a restaurant or business, this may appear in your friends' news feeds. These page likes also appear as entries on your Timeline. Open your Timeline and click "Likes" to see a full list. You can click through to any page to find the unlike option.

Review Activity Log

Open up your Facebook Timeline and then click "Activity log" to see everything you've been up to on Facebook, including the likes you've given out. Any likes can also be unliked from there. The audience selector icons next to each activity show which Facebook friends are able to see each piece of activity and the likes associated with it.

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