YouTube Is Removing The Dislike Counts From Videos (On The Web)

YouTube has recently started hiding the total number of dislikes from some of its online videos and content.

The like dislike bar is perhaps one of the simplest modes of conveying an opinion online, and yet is so effective at that task that individuals from other platforms ask for one too. Whether it's the angry emoji from Facebook, or the ability to down downvote threads and individuals on Reddit, the like and dislike buttons are an effective, and wordless, way to communicate your interaction with and impressions of YouTube's encounters content. While usually videos have more likes than dislikes (YouTube's a sprawling online platform, all videos cater to some specific individuals), sometimes the wheel turns the other way. Often with hilarious results. The best example of this is YouTube Rewind 2018 and 2019, a couple of videos made by YouTube that were both so out of touch with the community at large, and also plagued by corporate sponsorships and other such "sell-out" material. The videos currently stand among some of most disliked videos ever, and honestly, who can blame the community?

At any rate, the dislike button and the counts are important and an essential part of YouTube's online experience. Therefore, it comes as a surprise to perhaps no one that the video sharing platform has made the feature inaccessible in certain videos on a desktop. And before you ask: Rewind 2018 is part of those videos, yes. Now, why would such a decision take place? While the easy answer is "covering up one's mistakes", let's offer our tribute to YouTube by giving it more honorable intentions.

YouTube's New/Upcoming Dislike Button (without total number of counts)

A major reason could be to discourage cyberbullying. A community of online trolls, the cyberbullying side of YouTube shows just how confident individuals can be once they're able to hide behind a computer screen, a few thousand kilometers here. In order to stop hateful individuals from deliberately causing an individual sorrow and harm, YouTube decides to make their like/dislike ratio disappear. Victory! Or is it?

Ultimately, even such attempts are just YouTube's way of beating around the bush. While combatting cyberbullying may be a genuine excuse, there are a lot of other things that could be addressed. First of all, while YouTube bars the dislike ratio in order to protect the feelings of its creators, the engineers also don't dedicate enough energy towards catching and/or banning such propagating, hateful individuals. Besides, such an approach also actively ignores the second biggest reason for the like button to exist: the display of interest.

YouTube's Old/Current Dislike Button (with total number of counts)

How well a video does is invariably linked to the like/dislike ratio on a video. Barring this means that content creators have no way of judging just how well their content is doing, or whether or not its even resonating with the creator's core audience. This is the near equivalent of kick-starting a YouTube career with one hand tied behind the back. The lack of this feature is also something that may meddle with YouTube's Insights gesture for its community. Finally, this concept can still be successfully utilized.

Bots and fake view generating armies are becoming a nuisance online, and require swift moderation. Their usage as "like farms" on YouTube is especially disconcerting, and oftentimes misleading. Videos with many bots in the comments, or a nearly unearned amount of subscribers and likes can have the ratio hidden, which YouTube should seriously consider. This way, the creator is punished by removing their major line of insight with regards to their conversation. Bots have nothing to do and can easily be banned right after.

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