Today, YouTube announced that the company is hiding public dislike counts on videos across its site. The company says that the step has been taken to keep smaller creators safe from dislike attacks or harassment. The dislike button will still be there but won’t be showing the count.
We know how people use the dislike button to harass a creator. Comments like “I just came here to dislike” are common in videos of several small creators. Now when dislike count won’t be public, people who dislike a video without watching the video will less likely do this.
Even if dislike count will not be publicly available, creators can still see the dislike counts in YouTube Studio. They can use this feedback to improve their content.
Most people still prefer checking the like-dislike ratio to decide whether to continue watching. Now when dislike count won’t be there, they will have to watch the video to decide if the content is good not. Several people can now argue that the change could lead to them watching a video that’s not very good. This argument is valid, but YouTube also had to find a way to protect creators from dislike attacks.
The company started experimenting with hiding public dislike counts back in March this year. After seeing positive results, now the company is ready to make it available globally. This change will start gradually rolling out today across the platforms.
