YouTube Removes Dislike Button Count On All Videos And Streams

This morning, YouTube announced that the platform will no longer be showing dislike count on videos and streams after months of speculation and rumors about changes to the long-standing feature circulated the web.

Starting today, YouTube will be removing the dislike count for all viewers, with content creators still able to check the number of dislikes on their videos in Studio Analytics under the Engagement tab. While users are still able to press the dislike button, as usual, the number of dislikes will no longer be shown to them.

Apparently, 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. […] The update from YouTube is that the dislike button is staying, but the dislike counts will now be private. […] Only the creator can find it on the backend, if they want.

The initial reactions to the change were mainly negative, with users expressing concerns that the removal of the dislike button could lead to a proliferation of content that is misleading or poorly made since user input would no longer be easily visible.

YouTube had been testing the removal of the dislike count on videos since March, but today marks the first official announcement from the company about the change.