YouTube Will Hide Thumbs Down Results On Videos From Public View

In a move the company has been experimenting with for a couple months, YouTube has decided to remove the thumbs down results from publicly posted videos. This choice has been said to help avoid dislike attacks, the act of mass thumbs-downing particular videos, on smaller channels. The company wants to improve inclusivity and feels this would be a step towards reducing harassment on the platform.

"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.

We want 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.

We heard 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."

This move has been viewed as controversial among the YouTube community. Not saying there's a correlation, but it's a little bit of a coincidence this news happens to break following the massively unpopular Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack reveal several weeks ago, which currently sits at 18k Likes and 177k Dislikes. It's also worth mentioning the end of the year is coming up, and the company's YouTube Rewind 2021 may show interest in hiding those results.

It's not hard to see what the company is trying to accomplish, whether or not this will yield any results long-term will remain to be seen. If anything, it might encourage people to thumbs down many videos out of spite. It's really ambiguous to say what's an intended attack on a content creator or something that's genuinely disliked.

What do you think of YouTube's idea?