YouTube has announced that it will eliminate the number of ‘dislike’ of each video on its platform. Users can still continue to click on the “thumbs down” but only the author of the video – or simply who uploaded it – will be able to view the total number of “dislikes”.
“We want to create an inclusive and respectful environment – reads the official YouTube blog – in which creators have the opportunity to be successful and feel safe in expressing themselves”.
YouTube wants to protect content authors from harassment and planned attacks: not infrequently there is a real coordination between users, aimed at increasing the ‘dislike’ of a given video.
The public blackout of ‘dislike’ has been in the testing phase since March 2021. In this period YouTube observed a change in behavior significant: on channels without a count, users were less likely to click on the “thumbs down”.
“The data we have demonstrated a reduction in attacks” writes Youtube. “Added to this is the direct testimony of creators who are just starting out and who are unfairly hit” adds YouTube, which underlines how the experiment was most effective when applied to ‘small’ canals.
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On his YouTube blog he writes that the change will happen gradually, “starting today”. At the time of writing – it is the morning of November 11 – the dislike count is still in the public domain in Italy.
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