Many YouTube users reported seeing the “like” count on videos randomly disappear on November 5, 2024, sparking concern that the platform was testing a controversial change.
YouTube has made a series of controversial updates in recent months that have left users with a bitter feeling towards the Google-owned video platform.
From adding pause screen ads, increasing the price of YouTube Premium and attempting to break adblockers, the site has faced plenty of criticism in 2024.
On November 5, many users began noticing that the like count on videos had disappeared completely before being added back.
Numerous threads popped up on Reddit, where people voiced their frustration with the likes being totally removed.
“No likes anymore now,” one wrote with a screenshot showing that the amount of likes on a video had been removed.
“Did Youtube remove likes?” another asked, showing a screenshot of the first-ever YouTube video without the like count.
Although the likes did eventually return, the incident had many worried that this was a sign of things to come, especially considering YouTube removed the dislike count nearly three full years ago.
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“While I think it’s completely illogical to remove likes and dates… Youtube has made some arguably illogical decisions before. It wouldn’t surprise me if they did atp,” one remarked.
“Really hope it wasn’t them testing what changes they’re going to make next,” someone else chimed in.
“Youtube’s final form with literally just be a video with no title, views, likes, dislikes, release date, subs or channel name,” joked another.
This latest incident comes a week after reports surfaced that the platform was testing a new layout that removes the date a video was uploaded and the number of views it has. However, YouTube clarified that this was due to a bug related to browser extensions.
For now, likes have returned, and many believe this issue was caused by a bug. However, it’s easy to see why users were concerned about this potentially being a new feature on YouTube, given how much backlash some of the site’s tests have received so far.
Back in October, YouTube began testing a “lite” version of Premium that still includes ads, albeit at a cheaper price than the standard Premium tier.