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YouTube to make dislike counts private on all videos

YouTube has announced a new change to how dislikes work on the platform.

Donovan Erskine

November 10, 2021 10:30 AM

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YouTube has been around since 2005 and is one of the websites that has defined an era of internet culture. In the 16 years since its creation, the video-sharing site has also gone through plenty of major changes. Now, the team at YouTube is ready to roll out another big change that will alter how people use the website. Dislikes on YouTube will soon become private across all videos on the platform.

YouTube announced the changes coming to dislikes in a blog post on November 10, 2021. YouTube had actually experimented with this idea earlier this year for a select handful of users. Following that trial run, the company seemed to have been satisfied with how it changed the way users interact with videos. “Based on what we learned, we're making the dislike counts private across YouTube,” the post reads.

YouTube’s move to hide the dislike counts on videos is based on its desire to protect creators from harassment and deter dislike bombing. Similar to likes, dislikes exist as a way for viewers to inform the algorithm of what kind of videos they do and don’t want to see pop up in their feeds. However, the dislike button was often used as a way for viewers to retaliate or attack a creator for any number of reasons. In some cases, groups of users would flock to a video in a coordinated effort with the sole purpose of disliking it, in hopes that it causes problems for the creator.

Though dislike counts are going to become private, users will still have the option to dislike videos as they please, they just won’t be able to see how many dislikes a video has. Creators will be able to view the dislike counts on their videos through YouTube Studio. How do you feel about the change? Let us know in the Chatty down below.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_