YouTube starts hiding public dislike counts on videos to keep smaller creators from being targeted by dislike attacks, following a test in March

Creators will still be able to see how many people disliked their videos — YouTube has announced that it'll be hiding public dislike counts on videos across its site, starting today. Source: YouTube Official Blog .

The Verge 2021-11-11 Mitchell Clark

Context & Ripple Effects

YouTube had already been narrowing the visibility of audience-feedback signals, including a test that placed comments behind an extra click and API changes that hid live subscriber counts. The new policy extends that approach from creator-growth metrics to video-level negative feedback.

The distinction is consequential: creators retain the underlying dislike data, while viewers lose a public tally that can be used to coordinate or amplify hostility toward smaller channels.

First-order effects

Smaller YouTube creators lose a prominent public target for dislike attacks, while retaining dislike totals in their own analytics.
Viewers can still register a dislike, but can no longer use the visible count as an immediate public quality signal on a video.

Second-order effects

YouTube takes greater responsibility for interpreting feedback through its internal systems rather than letting public counts shape a video's reception.
TikTok's test of hidden dislike counts on comments shows platforms are separately moving negative-feedback tools toward private moderation inputs rather than public scoreboards.

Third-order effects

YouTube's handling of comments, subscriber metrics, and dislikes points toward a platform model in which creators and the service retain detailed engagement data while public-facing social proof is selectively constrained.
If that pattern continues, audience metrics become less useful as universally observable reputation signals and more valuable as platform-controlled data for moderation and product decisions.

The trend: Major social platforms are redefining public engagement metrics as controlled safety and governance surfaces rather than neutral audience counters.

Discussion

@youtubecreators @youtubecreators on x
Earlier this year we launched an experiment making the dislike count private. Based on what we learned, the dislike button is staying, but the *count* is now private to creators (in Studio) to help prevent targeted dislike attacks. → https://blog.youtube/...
@youtubeliaison Matt Koval on x
I wasn't supportive of this change until I saw the stories — from lots of new and small creators trying to make it. Let's give them a better chance. I explain in this video👇 https://www.youtube.com/...
@tomwarren Tom Warren on x
YouTube is ditching the dislike count. You can still 👎 a video, but it'll be private feedback rather than public shaming. Good move from YouTube 👍 https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@deebeegeek26 DeeBeeGeek on x
I guess every video on YouTube is good content now. Sure how are we supposed to know when you're hiding half of the voting system. Scammers, click baiters and advertisers are gonna love this. https://twitter.com/...
@mkbhd Marques Brownlee on x
Hey @YouTube removing info from the rating system is NOT helpful. Public like/dislike ratio = Useful tool to see how helpful a video will be at a glance. Hiding dislikes helps nothing... but increases the # of ppl dissatisfied by spending too much time watching an unhelpful video…
@hhariri Hadi Hariri on x
This is a good move YouTube. Well done. And it should serve as a lesson to Twitter to get rid of their stupid idea of downvotes on replies. https://blog.youtube/...
@accursedfarms Accursed Farms on x
This is kind of lame. I think dislike ratios can be helpful and reflect a populist sentiment. Medium ones usually mean something is controversial. High ones usually mean something is either wrong, really bad, or represents some related scandal going on. https://techcrunch.com/...
@chadtronic @chadtronic on x
What was great about the dislike button was that no one could delete or moderate it. It helped display the true reception of something. Now brands and companies will just delete any negative comments and there will be absolutely no public metric to rely on. Complete censorship. h…
@epro Emil Protalinski on x
Those most happy about YouTube hiding public dislike counts tend to be creators, while those most frustrated seem to be users. This is an observation, not a rule, but it shows who gains/loses most from the change. It's also in line with Big Tech suddenly caring about creators. ht…
@earsxbl Ears on x
This is a mistake. Having thick skin is apart of the creating process. Not everyone is supposed to like or support you. https://twitter.com/...
@matthewloop Matthew Loop on x
Sneaky move. Another Orwellian attempt to slant public perception on certain topics and people. Can't have the masses thinking for themselves. https://techcrunch.com/...
@charlesarthur Charles Arthur on x
Removing the actual numbers that make us respond hamster-like to things is one of the ways to make social networks less problematic, as I wrote about in Social Warming - via @bengrosser. https://twitter.com/...
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x
Publicly showing that lots of people dislike certain content sets a tone for your app. I think it's a good move for YouTube to remove such an obvious talisman of negativity from videos. Even Twitter with its “ratios” doesn't go as far as dislike counts. https://www.theverge.com/.…
@thean1meman Joey on x
This literally solves nothing. “Not public” means that creators will still see the amount of dislikes on their end which will just call for trolls to mass-dislike videos to see creators suffering mentally from a problem nobody else can see. Because screw mental health, amiright? …
@littlevmills Little V on x
Don't really have a problem with this change honestly. Most of the other socials don't have a dislike button and they're getting along fine Besides if someone dislikes your shit, they'll let you know in the comments anyways! Lol https://twitter.com/...
@keleftheriou Kosta Eleftheriou on x
This is terrible. Hiding the dislikes but still showing the likes? Talk about bias. If one can be gamed, so can the other. Either make them trustworthy, or remove them both. Imagine if Apple only removed negative App Store ratings. https://twitter.com/...
@autismcapital @autismcapital on x
YouTube removing the like/dislike ratio bar is criminal and maliciously evil. The erasure of the human opinion continues. https://techcrunch.com/...
@tomwarren Tom Warren on x
if Twitter had a dislike button I'm pretty sure my tweet would be like 80% disliked 🙃 https://twitter.com/...
@scarletsprites Scarlet Sprites on x
I feel like I'm the only one of my peers who supports this. Large companies can't hide the backlash from the community. The smaller guy who is constantly getting shit on because he goes against the grain however? He's dismissed the moment someone sees the sub and dislike count. h…
@sadlyitsbradley Brad Lynch on x
Mental health on the platform has improved slightly more with this one simple change https://twitter.com/...
@zoneoftech Daniel on x
I 100% agree with this. A lot of the times when we do a device vs device comparison, no matter how fair the comparison is, fans of the losing side would mass dislike the video. Removing some toxicity from YouTube will positively help the mental health of content creators. https:/…
@ericdjuly Eric July on x
Such a dumbass policy and it has nothing to do with small creators https://twitter.com/...
@youtubecreators @youtubecreators on x
We know not everyone will agree with this decision, but we believe it's the right thing to do to make YouTube safer for creators to express themselves. To learn more about how we reached this decision, check out the blog or watch @YouTubeLiaison's video → https://www.youtube.com/…
@ultimashadowx @ultimashadowx on x
YouTube still malding their video was the most disliked of all time. https://twitter.com/...
@danstapleton Dan Stapleton on x
But *now* how will we know when people disagree with the review score of a game they haven't played yet? https://twitter.com/...
@brandonbutch Brandon Butch on x
First reaction is to HATE this decision, but I'm going to let it marinate over the next couple of weeks before deciding how I feel about it. What do you think of the dislike counter being removed from YouTube? https://twitter.com/...
@velvetune Emery on x
so, this means that disabling, or selectively deleting comments, allows one to completely silence negative feedback. here's a thread about the catastrophes that could entail from that. 🧵 https://twitter.com/...
@stryxo @stryxo on x
Now is the perfect time to launch my scam tutorial youtube channel and just delete comments that reveal the truth https://twitter.com/...
@reversalx7 Reversal on x
I HATE IT WHEN COMPANIES MAKE A CHANGE TO SOMETHING THAT'S WORKING PERFECTLY FINE AS IT IS. https://twitter.com/...
@heyguhrl GuhRl on x
The dislike button will be private, I kind of like it. https://twitter.com/...
@retroity @retroity on x
This seems like a horrifically bad idea, especially since dislikes can be used to mark obvious scams https://twitter.com/...
@sarahdanielstv @sarahdanielstv on x
You could start by not letting YouTubers defame and slander other creators mercilessly without consequence and then maybe these targeted attacks would happen less? https://twitter.com/...
@ericrayweather Weric Way on x
Trailers everywhere are rejoicing. https://twitter.com/...
@shoe0nhead Shoe on x
we already have the option to turn off likes/dislikes what the fuck is this???? https://twitter.com/...
@tomwarren Tom Warren on x
it's true that dislike counts are good for avoiding wasting time watching bad tutorial videos, but that's a bigger problem with the YouTube algorithm. Genuinely bad videos shouldn't be getting pushed into search results
@cleoabram Cleo Abram on x
youtube is hiding ‘dislikes’ from now on and I love this https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...

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