YouTube Fans Score Platform's Plan To Hide Dislike Count

YouTube's "dislike" count - long a warning that a video might be disputed or poorly produced - is being turned off in a controversial move that the company says is designed to protect content creators from abuse, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported.

Photo Insert: YouTube fans expressed their dislike towards not being allowed to display their dislike.

The Google platform says it will no longer show how many negative ratings a video has received in an effort to create an "inclusive and respectful environment." Since the announcement on Wednesday, Nov. 10, tens of thousands of users of the web's largest video platform have been criticizing the move in the comments section of a video explaining the new policy.

Users will still be able to click on the dislike button for any video, the video platform said, however, it will no longer impact other users' decisions to watch a video, as the dislike counter itself will only be visible to the authors of the video.

In a blog post on Wednesday, YouTube said the button was being misused for campaigns against certain users in what it said were "dislike attacks" to reduce the amount of people watching their videos.

Anything you yourself dislike will continue to influence what selection of videos is suggested to you on YouTube's "Home" page, the company said.

YouTube, alongside Reddit, was one of a rare few social platforms to give users the option to vote down a piece of content, while platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok push users to more positive single-click engagements.

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