YouTube Stops Showing Dislikes to Anyone Unrelated

Remember these days when you could suddenly run into a video with millions of dislikes, wondering what’s so disgusting about it? Say goodbye to this guilty pleasure. YouTube announced that it plans to hide the number of dislikes under videos from anyone except for its creator. Your dislike will still count, but others won’t see it.

The biggest video hosting service in the world explains that this measure is necessary to prevent harassment from masses of users who often react to certain videos without even watching. Other users may keep from watching the video in question because they see the reaction. And when it comes to their own reaction, it can be influenced by likes and dislikes already left.

The common attitude towards the video, though, will still be available from comment reading, unless comments are turned off by the uploader. But to make your own negative reaction visible to other visitors, you will need to type a comment and leave it under your username. This may cause people to react more responsibly; on the other hand, though, it may motivate bullies to register more fake accounts.

It does not mean that dislikes themselves are canceled. They remain as a method to show one’s personal attitude towards a certain video or to tune the recommendation system by liking some videos and disliking others. It’s not done in public anymore, that’s it.

YouTube is not the only social media to hide user reactions. For example, Instagram has already hidden the number of likes from the public for certain accounts. Facebook plans similar steps as well. The intention of these networks is to soften the social pressure that comes from the audience’s reaction. In the end, these measures are meant to make the online environment less toxic.

And what about you? Do you want your attitude to remain public, or are you good with having it only seen by you and the creator of the video? Will you prefer any other service that allows public negative feedback? Let’s have a constructive discussion in the comments!