Revealed: The World’s Most HATED Social Media Sites. Is Your Enemy On The List?

If you’re tired of Facebook but can’t get enough of TikTok, you’re not alone.

New research reveals which social media apps are the most and least loved worldwide.

Facebook emerged as the most hated social media app and was the lowest-rated site in 39 countries.

Microblogging platform Reddit followed suit, being named the worst-rated app in 30 countries, including the UK.

However, it was TikTok that emerged as the most popular app in the UK and the world, with the app being rated the best in 30 countries in total.

The Most Hated Social Media Apps

For the research, email tracking service Mailsuite compared Google Play Store reviews for 1,500 apps.

Since Facebook is generally the least liked, the list could be disappointing for Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Facebook, Instagram and Threads, all owned by the social media giant, are among the top five most hated sites.

Facebook seemed to be especially reviled in South America, with only four countries naming an app other than Facebook as their least favorite.

Zuckerberg’s first social media site was also disliked in large parts of Africa and Asia, and in India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Morocco the site ended up at the bottom of the charts.

Meta only did slightly better on its other social media sites, Instagram and Threads, both of which were the least popular in four countries.

Designed as an alternative to Twitter, Threads launched to much fanfare in the summer of 2023.

Despite an initial spike in downloads, enthusiasm for the so-called ‘Twitter killer’ quickly waned.

However, Threads is once again closing the gap on its rival, with daily downloads of X (Twitter) on iOS tripling and downloads in the Google Play Store doubling.

X was rated the least popular in 10 countries worldwide and was ranked third on the list of most hated apps.

Since Elon Musk took over the app in October 2022, the social media site has been the subject of much controversy.

Musk has been criticized for his restrictions on moderation and his laxity in dealing with hate speech, which has scared off many advertisers from the platform.

However, the United Kingdom follows most countries in Europe in choosing Reddit as the most hated social media site.

In total, 30 countries gave Reddit the lowest rating of all social media sites, including Germany, France, Spain and Sweden.

The social media site, which was founded in 2005, has also undergone some major changes recently after the company went public.

The company has now agreed to add more ads and deny search engines like Google access to its content unless they pay for the data.

The most loved social media apps

However, not all social media apps attract so much criticism and many of them are loved by their users.

TikTok, the short video sharing platform, in particular seems to be the most loved, ranking first in 30 countries around the world.

Founded in 2016 by Chinese company ByteDance, the app has quickly become one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, especially loved by younger generations.

However, TikTok has come under increasing criticism over alleged security breaches and ties to its Chinese parent companies.

This has led some senators to attempt to ban the app in the US.

It’s no surprise then that it was newcomer BeReal that claimed the top spot in the US, not TikTok.

The French social media site, which launched in 2020, asks users to take an unfiltered photo with the app’s camera every day. The app then simultaneously takes a selfie and a photo with the rear camera.

TikTok was the world’s most popular app every year between 2018 and 2022, but was overtaken by Instagram in 2023.

That year, TikTok was downloaded 733 million times, compared to 767 million times for Instagram.

This sudden return to form was largely attributed to the introduction of Instagram Reels, a feature that mimics TikTok’s short-form video format.

But even that wasn’t enough to push Instagram higher up the rankings. Research from Mailsuite found that Meta’s photo app only held the top spot in nine countries.

Threads and Facebook also performed slightly better, topping the charts in 15 and 12 countries respectively.

A surprising newcomer to the top five most-loved apps was the little-known TikTok clone Likee.

This video sharing app was the top-rated app on the Google Play Store in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Latvia and Moldova.

However, the app has been heavily criticized for its laxity in dealing with child safety, privacy and explicit content, with one expert even calling it a “paedophile’s paradise.”

The app automatically displays the user’s location with each message, and the search function allows users to filter results by gender.

Users also cannot set their profiles to private or restrict who can message them.

An assessment of the app’s security by VPN Overview found that the site contained a lot of graphical content, despite being listed as 12+ in the Google Play Store.

It’s interesting to note that several well-known apps appeared in both the most hated and most loved lists, namely Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

This suggests they are particularly polarizing for social media users, while TikTok (only in the most liked list) is universally more beloved.