YouTube will start hiding dislike counts on all videos across the platform

Earlier this year, YouTube started experimenting with hiding the dislike counts on videos to help reduce the dislike attacks on creators across the platform, and after analysis in July, YouTube did see a reduction in that behavior, so the company has announced it will start hiding the dislike counts on all the videos across its platform.

But that doesn't mean you won't be able to dislike a video since the dislike button isn't going anywhere, and you can still use it to tune the recommendations. It's just that the number of dislikes a video gets will now be private to creators who can access it in the YouTube Studio.

YouTube says that by hiding the dislike count, it wants to "create an inclusive and respectful environment where creators have the opportunity to succeed and feel safe to express themselves," and that this is just one of the many steps the platform is taking to protect the creators - especially the smaller ones - from harassment.

While that's a valid reason, one might argue that dislike counts on a video are useful since they help viewers determine if the video's worth watching. However, YouTube says that its research didn't find any noticeable difference in the viewership regardless of whether or not users could see the dislike counts.

The most disliked video on YouTube right now is YouTube's Rewind 2018, having 3 million likes and a whopping 19 million dislikes. But it won't be too long until those numbers go private since YouTube has started gradually hiding the dislike counts across the platform.

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