Team YouTube is experimenting with a new direction for the popular site’s ‘Dislike’ button, and it’s already getting heat from YouTubers like Jacksepticeye, AngryJoeShow, Drew Gooden and more.
The site announced on March 30 that it was starting to test a revamp to how people interact with the Dislikes that a YouTube video has. The biggest change is that the number of Dislikes will no longer be on the front-end of the site.
“In response to creator feedback around well-being and targeted dislike campaigns, we’re testing a few new designs that don’t show the public dislike count,” YouTube said. “If you’re part of this small experiment, you might spot one of these designs in the coming weeks ”
YouTubers will still be able to see how many Dislikes one of their videos has in the Studio and viewers will still be able to freely Like or Dislike anything they come across.
Still, a ton of people are still wondering why the company would move on this change, even in its experimental stages, when there are larger problems to tackle for many.
“What about content that is objectively bad and harmful to people? Like scams etc?” Jacksepticeye said, expressing concern for YouTube’s growing problems already on the site.
“The problem with websites that don’t have Dislike buttons is it’s harder for people to get an idea of what’s good and what’s bad,” Drew Gooden said. “Like if Twitter had a dislike button, you guys could see how much everybody hates this.”
the problem with websites that don’t have dislike buttons is it’s harder for people to get an idea of what’s good and what’s bad. like if twitter had a dislike button, you guys could see how much everybody hates this
— Drew Gooden (@drewisgooden) March 30, 2021
Destroying logical and functioning systems due to nuance scenarios is by definition illogical and creates non-functioning systems.
You’re a billion dollar company and take nearly 50% of my ad revenue and THIS is what your executives come up with?
— MYSTIC7 (@MYSTIC7) March 30, 2021
What would be FAR MORE helpful than this LAZY attempt to address a larger issue would be for you guys to actually ENFORCE RULES with Bans/Suspensions against Channels that falsely DMCA others. Not this.There needs to be real consequences for THAT, not cover-ups for Dislikes! 🤦♂️ https://t.co/wLl0VDlVFR
— Joe Vargas (@AngryJoeShow) March 30, 2021
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There was everything from mild reactions to hard-lined responses to YouTube’s experimental change.
“What would be FAR MORE helpful than this LAZY attempt to address a larger issue would be for you guys to actually ENFORCE RULES with Bans/Suspensions against Channels that falsely DMCA others. Not this,” AngryJoeShow said. “There needs to be real consequences for THAT, not cover-ups for Dislikes!”
Team YouTube explains Dislike change
With a ton of people commenting on the proposed changes to the video-hosting platforms, the Team YouTube Twitter account has been trying to explain a bit more about what the company is planning with the update.
“Our hope is that you don’t have to rely on dislikes to see if a video is scammy and can instead rely on the reporting tool, but we understand it’s not perfect,” YouTube said in response to concerns about scam channels being more protected. “We’ve shared this feedback w/ both the likes/dislikes & the reporting tool teams. We know there’s work to do on this, which is why we’re starting with a very small experiment.”
(2/2) We know there’s work to do on this, which is why we’re starting with a very small experiment – this is exactly the type of feedback we were hoping to get in this early stage, so really appreciate you sharing your thoughts ❤️
— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) March 30, 2021
If you’re in the experiment, we're only testing out different looks and feels to the buttons. You'll still be able to like and dislike videos, but you may not see how many the video has received. Creators will still be able to see the exact numbers in YouTube Studio.
— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) March 30, 2021
Moreover, the company said this change is to protect creators from negative feedback, a position that is drawing a lot of criticism.
“We’ve heard from creators that the current experience can negatively impact their wellbeing,” YouTube said of disabling the Dislike button.
YouTube is expected to roll out the experimental Dislike changes to more users in the following weeks.
