YouTube thumbs down the thumbs-down count
After a series of tests, YouTube has decided to remove the number of dislikes on videos to make the platform more friendly to content creators, specifically young users. Only the thumbs-down icon will remain.
YouTube viewers use the tiny thumbs to rank videos’ popularity. More dislikes, however, mean the platform’s algorithm will push the videos less on viewers’ feeds.
The thumbs down is also used by viewers as a tool to harass content creators, but tests showed that removing the count will lessen this behavior as well as reduce anxiety, especially of teenage content creators. Youtube pledged to regularly provide the US Congress with updated data about this matter. This development comes as competition tightens among content platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and Spotify. Instagram, part of Meta (formerly Facebook), recently allowed users to hide like counts on posts.
