Menlo Park, CA — After the successful roll-out of a series of new “smiley” reactions used to react to users’ posts, Facebook announced today that it will be introducing a sarcasm font that can be used for passive-aggressive purposes on the popular social media platform. The font, which will be available from a drop-down menu, will feature the default Facebook typeface but in reverse-left italics to indicate sarcasm.
“We’ve been listening to our users,” said Facebook Director of User Experience Bethany Millbright reading from a prepared statement. “And the message is clear: you want more flexibility and options when engaging on Facebook. So today, we are launching the sarcasm font in select countries including Portugal, Ireland and Canada. If it is received positively, we plan on rolling it out to the rest of the Facebook community.”
The font called Facebook Street, is a reverse italic font that has been under informal development for almost 5 years. Several software developers have attempted to bring the project to fruition, but after Google refused to include the “WebFont” version of the sarcastic font in 2012, the project has died. That is, until Facebook embraced the project earlier this year.
The font will appear in bold reverse italics in “original” Facebook posts, and a lighter-weight version in the comment sections. The font is currently in testing phases in select countries and should be available globally in time for the Summer Olympics in Brazil.
