YouTube also announced that it would experiment with hiding dislikes in order to discourage “dislike mobs” from down voting creators’ and channels’ content. The experiment is different from the company’s past solutions, but it’s comparable to other websites’ initiatives to fight targeted threats, such as Instagram’s.
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.”
Both likes and dislikes numbers are viewable in a creator’s personal YouTube Studio tab, but only likes are publicly viewed on a video in the current configuration.
Youtube notes in a help article describing the test that it can be detrimental to a creator’s well-being and that it will inspire a coordinated attack of dislikes on a creator’s video. Essentially, having a hate number rise could be enough of an opportunity to join in and raise the number.
