Play culture: “Hiding” the dislikes is implemented

At the beginning of this year, YouTube announced its plans to no longer display the dislike number of videos. These plans have recently been implemented: From now on you will no longer be able to see, for example, the almost 200,000 dislikes on Nintendo’s overview video for Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack. This change was implemented, among other things, to protect YouTubers from dislike attacks and the like: It should have happened more often that YouTube users gave disproportionately many dislikes. Development studios, for example, experience a similar situation when gamers “Review Bombs” a game for whatever reason.

“We want to create a respectful environment in which YouTubers have the opportunity to be successful and feel safe expressing themselves. This is just one of many steps we are taking to continue protecting YouTubers from harassment. Our work is not done yet and we will continue to invest here. “, said a spokesman for YouTube.
The dislike button itself is still part of the page. Only the number of dislikes is now hidden. So if you are not at all satisfied with a video, you can always give a thumbs down. The creator can still see the number of dislikes and the YouTube suggestions will continue to be adjusted by dislikes.

The change has been uploaded to the server since yesterday, but has been implemented inconsistently in parts. For example, if you create content for YouTube yourself, you can currently still see the dislikes of all videos and not just those of your own offers. For YouTube consumers, however, this change is generally rather frustrating and counterproductive when looking for a solution to a problem on the platform, for example. The ratio of likes to dislikes has always been a good way to see if the information in the video is actually helpful.