Why Has YouTube Removed the Dislike Counter?

The biggest video sharing and social media platform recently came under a lot of fire for having allegedly removed the Dislike button that appears under the videos in a bid to “promote respectful interactions between viewers and creators.”

However, the assumption that the dislike button is completely removed was theorized from the sudden inconsistent appearances of the feature across the app. This supposition has been proven to be false as YouTube clarified the erratic aspect of the Dislike button as a part of some tests it was running at the time to improve the platform.

Yet, the solution that YouTube seems to have settled on did not help in pacifying the displeased users.?

While the platform is not doing away with the Dislike button completely, it will make the dislike counter private so that only the creator can view the amount of dislikes that the video receives. According to the statement released by the platform on its blog:?

“Creators will still be able to find their exact dislike counts in YouTube Studio, along with other existing metrics, if they would like to understand how their content is performing.? Viewers can still dislike videos to tune their recommendations and privately share feedback with creators”?

This move came as a result of a long series of experiments that started earlier this year, and was made to ensure that creators, especially the new or small-scale ones, were better protected from harassment and dislike attacks. YouTube found that upon removing the dislike count visibility, trolls became less likely to target the button to drive up the number of dislikes for no substantial reason.

Although the button would still be in place for viewers to tweak and adjust their recommendations and for creators to analyze their videos’ performance, a majority of the users are unhappy with this new development.

Jawed Karim, YouTube’s third co-founder seems to agree with the public sentiment as can be seen from the edited description under his video “Me at the Zoo,” which happens to be the very first video ever uploaded on YouTube back in 2005. The edited description read:

“Why would YouTube make this universally disliked change? There is a reason, but it’s not a good one, and not one that will be publicly disclosed.

…The ability to easily and quickly identify bad content is an essential feature of a user-generated content platform. Why? Because not all user-generated content is good. It can’t be. In fact, most of it is not good. And that’s okay… Among the flood of content, there are great creations waiting to be exposed. And for that to happen, the stuff that’s not great has to fall by the side as quickly as possible.

…The process works, and there’s a name for it: the wisdom of the crowds. The process breaks when the platform interferes with it. Then, the platform invariably declines. Does YouTube want to become a place where everything is mediocre?”?

The Like and Dislike counts have been significant factors for the users to decide whether they want to watch a particular video or not, and according to the developers in charge, removing the Dislike count would level the playing field for smaller channels.?

However, criticism has poured in from creators as well, expressing disappointment on the update as dislike counts have been useful not only in expressing users’ watching preferences but also in quickly identifying misleading and spam videos that were promoted by the platform’s own algorithm.

Despite all the negative feedback from viewers and creators alike, YouTube does not seem willing to budge from their decision as has been clarified from their blog update. The removal of the dislike counter is said to be one of the many measures they will be taking up to “protect creators from harassment” and they will continue to invest in more updates that align with this objective.

Will YouTube roll back this feature after all? Stay in the loop with Uniworld Studios or follow our social media handles for the latest updates. As a leading social media marketing agency , we bring you the latest trends in social media marketing so you can stay ahead of the game.?