LAST week, Twitter ‘killed off’ it’s iconic ‘Favourite’ star feature, replacing it with it with a heart ‘Like’ function.

This has been met with outrage from many users, accusing the platform of copying other social media sites such as Instagram and Facebook.

In a press release, Twitter defended the update, saying, “We are changing our star icon for favourites to a heart and we’ll be calling them ‘Likes’. We want to make Twitter easier and more rewarding to use, and we know that at times the star could be confusing, especially to newcomers. You might like a lot of things, but not everything can be your favourite.The heart, in contrast, is a universal symbol that resonates across languages, cultures, and time zones. 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.”

Twitter’s favourites were born in 2006, pre-dating both Tumblr’s red hearts, which arrived toward the end of 2008, and Facebook’s ‘Like’ button, which was introduced in 2009.

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