YouTube Will Now Hide Dislikes to Discourage Online Trolling
YouTube announced that it will hide the dislike counts on videos across the platform. The firm said that this move will protect upcoming creators from harassment and dislike attacks and encourage “respectful interactions” between creators and viewers.
YouTube confirmed that although the dislike button will still be around, only the creator can see the detailed metrics.
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YouTube’s plans to give thumbs down to the dislike button
The company’s decision to hide the dislike button does not come as a surprise. Earlier this year, it announced that it is playing around with the idea of hiding public dislike numbers. For quite some time, individual creators have had the option to hide the ratings on their videos.
Many predict that hiding the dislike count could be a potential gamechanger. For a while, viewers could see the like-to-dislike ratio when they click on a video and decide whether they want to continue watching. Moving forward, that is set to change as this ratio is now deemed as a vector for harassment.
According to YouTube, when testing this change, viewers were less likely to use the dislike button to harass the creator. The online video-sharing website said that only the creators will be able to view the dislike numbers in the YouTube Studio.
Other social media platforms offer similar options
YouTube is not the only platform that offers the option to hide the number of dislikes. Instagram and Facebook also enable users to hide the like counts to protect themselves from potential social pressure.
Creators will be able to display the number of likes on their YouTube videos if they choose to leave a public rating. Instagram has not yet turned off likes side-wide. However, it continues to express increasing concerns pertaining to what data creators can view versus what data their viewers can see.
Will hiding dislike counts continue?
On a lighter note, hiding the dislike count could potentially help YouTube erase an embarrassing moment in its history. The most disliked video on the platform is YouTube’s own Rewind from 2018.
While some argue that hiding the dislike counts is a boon to the creators, not everyone is on board with the idea. An argument says that not viewing public dislikes could lead to a user watching a video they are not interested in.
However, YouTube is expected to stay firm on its stance of protecting smaller creators from dislike attacks and harassment.
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