Social Media

YouTube Removes Dislike Counts On All Videos

YouTube removes the general dislike count from all videos, although the dislike button will still be available for users to customize their recommendations.

This permanent change follows an experiment earlier this year where YouTube removed dislikes to see if it would help reduce “dislike attacks”.

“As part of this experiment, viewers could still see and use the dislike button. But because the count was not visible to them, we found that they were less likely to target the video’s dislike button to increase the count. In short, our trial data showed a decrease in offensive hate behavior.” .

According to YouTube, when users collectively dislike a video, it is a form of harassment against the creators. The removal of public hate charges is designed to reduce said “harassment”.

From now on, the dislike button will remain on the videos, but the number of clicks it receives will be private.

The button is now a tool that viewers can use to customize the recommendations they receive through YouTube.

Channels can see how many likes their videos receive, if they choose, in YouTube Studio along with other metrics.

YouTube acknowledges that the decision to remove a dislike count won’t sit well with everyone:

“We heard during the experiment that some of you have used the general hate count to help decide whether or not to watch a video. We know you may not agree with this decision, but we think it’s the right thing to do for the platform.”

YouTube claims that the results of its experiment indicate that the number of dislikes has no measurable effect on a user’s decision to watch a video.

For more information on YouTube’s reasoning behind removing public dislikes, see the explainer video below:

If you found the dislike count helpful when deciding whether to watch a video, you can still refer to the comments section of the video.

There you can also see if people generally agree with the content of the video, provided the channel does not disable user comments.

YouTube is committed to making more changes like this in the future:

“We want to create an inclusive and respectful environment where creators have the opportunity to succeed and feel safe to express themselves. This is just one of many steps we are taking to continue to protect creators from harassment. Our work is not finished, and we will continue to invest here.”

Source: Official YouTube blog


Featured image: Wachiwit/Shutterstock

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