San Francisco, Apr 14 (IANS): Chinese short-video app TikTok is testing a private dislike button for comments and the users can flag comments they find 'irrelevant or inappropriate' without the dislike being visible to others.

"We've started testing a way to let individuals identify comments they believe to be irrelevant or inappropriate," the company said in a statement late on Wednesday.

"This community feedback will add to the range of factors we already use to help keep the comment section consistently relevant and a place for genuine engagement," TikTok added.

The dislike button will appear in addition to the option to report a comment for community guideline violations.

TikTok said it removed over 85 million videos between October and December 2021 for violations -- nearly 1 per cent of all videos uploaded on the platform.

The company said the dislike button isn't seen as a way to report comments, and that users should instead use the standard process for reporting comments for harassment, hate speech, bullying, etc.

Social media consultant Matt Navarra first spotted the TikTok dislike button earlier this year.

Google-owned YouTube already offers a thumbs down button for comments while Reddit offers a down vote button for comments.

Twitter has also been experimenting with a private downvote button.