YouTube will no longer show the number of “dislikes” on videos, an attempt to make the platform more hospitable to creators.
For years, YouTube has relied on the tiny thumbs below each video as a metric for ranking content.
Viewers often used the thumbs-down button to torment or harass certain creators — worse engagement metrics can mean less promotion by the platform’s algorithm.
During tests, YouTube said it found that hiding the display count cut down on this practice.
“We also heard directly from smaller creators and those just getting started that they are unfairly targeted by this behaviour,” the company wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.
The button itself isn’t going away — only the public view of the count.
YouTube, part of Alphabet Inc’s Google, needs to keep creators happy because it’s facing its first real competition for talent in years from rivals…
