YouTube video hosting platform announced in its blog post that the company will begin hiding the dislike count on all videos starting from November 10. However, users will still have the ability to use the dislike button.
YouTube made the decision to hide dislikes after an experiment in which the platform tested whether the dislike counter affected the total number of dislikes. YouTube began testing this feature in March this year at the request of video creators. Participants of this experiment could use the dislike button, but they did not see the total number of dislikes.
The experiment showed that since the number of dislikes was hidden, people used this button less. The study also showed that mostly negative ratings were given to videos created by beginner video makers with a small number of subscribers.
Bradley Rhodes
At the time, YouTube explained that they were considering several solutions: letting the authors decide whether to hide or show the dislike button, adding a small survey to the button about the reasons for disliking a video, or removing it altogether.
YouTube noted that video creators will still be able to see the number of dislikes in YouTube Studio along with other metrics. The algorithms will also still take user dislikes into account when making recommendations.