YouTube Announces Removal Of Dislike Count On All Videos Across Its Platform

YouTube declares removal of dislike count on all videos across its platform to guard content creators against online harassment & targetted dislike attacks.

Why YouTube is Removing Dislike Count?

Nowadays, some groups are misusing YouTube's dislike button to harm the creator's overall performance. That is why Youtube has taken the decision to hide the Dislike count on its videos to protect content creators from targeted online attacks and harassment.

The platform is not eliminating the dislike button and viewers can still dislike any video. The only thing is the dislike count will be visible to creators as private feedback, which will help prevent some public shaming, according to YouTube. This change will start gradually rolling out today, as per the announcement.

As demonstrated by YouTube’s Creator Liaison Matt Koval:

 

“Groups of viewers are targeting a video’s dislike button to drive up the count, turning it into something like a game with a visible scoreboard, and it’s usually just because they don’t like the creator or what they stand for. That’s a big problem when half of YouTube’s mission is to give everyone a voice.”

In addition to this, the new content creators think that they have just started a channel and are being unreasonably targeted by this behavior, which was confirmed by an experiment done by YouTube. It further says that this attacking behavior occurred at a higher proportion on smaller channels.

Some viewers joked that YouTube eliminated the feature out of spite after its own 2018 Rewind video became the most disliked video on the platform. Others raised more severe concerns around the suppression of freedom of speech and expression.

Let us know your thoughts on this in the comment section below.

Writer - Sahil Madaan

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