YouTube has revealed that it will test hiding dislikes in order to prevent “dislike mobs” from downvoting videos from creators and channels. The experiment is a different implementation from the company’s previous solutions, but it’s close to other websites’ attempts to deal with targeted attacks, such as Instagram.
In a recent tweet, the streaming platform claimed that it is “experimenting with different designs to cover the dislike count in order to shield creators from being overwhelmed by intentional dislikes from malicious viewers” in “response to creator feedback.”
In the current setup, all likes and dislikes statistics are viewable in a creator’s individual YouTube Studio tab, but only likes are publicly displayed on a video.
In a support article explaining the test, Youtube states that it can have a negative effect on a creator’s well-being and “can inspire a targeted campaign of dislikes on a creator’s video.” Essentially, the idea is that seeing a hate number grow may be enough incentive to join in and increase the number.
