YouTube hiding dislikes on videos

YouTube announced Wednesday it will start hiding dislikes on videos. 

The Google-owned company said in a statement that “earlier this year, we experimented with the dislike button to see whether or not changes could help better protect our creators from harassment, and reduce dislike attacks,” wherein viewers try to rack up dislikes on particular content.

“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 a video’s dislike button to drive up the count,” YouTube said.

“Based on what we learned, we’re making the dislike counts private across YouTube, but the dislike button is not going away. This change will start gradually rolling out today.

To reduce targeted dislike attacks & their impact on creators (esp on smaller creators), you’ll no longer see a public dislike *count* on YouTube starting today (the dislike button is staying).

This comes after lots of research, testing & consideration → https://t.co/mJWDJSSRoG

— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) November 10, 2021

YouTube added that viewers can still dislike videos and privately share feedback with creators on the site. 

“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 done, and we’ll continue to invest here,” it said. 

Facebook and Instagram already allow users to hide like and dislike counts in an effort to avoid people from feeling social pressure over their posts.