YouTube has announced that it’s making a change to the way dislikes are displayed on videos, with the dislike count to be made private, in order to limit misuse of the option. The change comes as a result of attacks on users, where the dislike option has been used to harm a video’s performance.
As explained 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.”
As a result, YouTube ran an experiment earlier in the year where it made dislike counts private, in order to examine whether that might have an impact on coordinated dislike attacks. And it did, reports Andrew Hutchinson from Social Media Today.
“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. In short, our experiment data showed a reduction in dislike attacking behavior.”
What’s changing for creators and viewers starting today:
- 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.
- Youtube wants to create an inclusive and respectful environment where creators have the opportunity to succeed and feel safe to express themselves.
- Viewers can still dislike videos to tune their recommendations and privately share feedback with creators.
Youtube states in an official statement, “During the experiment that some of you have used the public dislike count to help decide whether or not to watch a video. We know that you might not agree with this decision, but we believe that this is the right thing to do for the platform.”
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’s a logical, yet significant move for the platform, which could have broader implications for public feedback. We’ll have to wait and see what actually happens when it’s launched on a broad scale.
Read the official announcement here. Follow @itp.live for more.