Was it necessary, removing dislikes on Youtube?
The notice of the Youtube public dislikes displayed to me on December of 2021. Didn’t think much about it until all videos on Youtube didn’t have the dislike numbers displayed anymore. Started questioning if these are the standards for Youtube to keep discretion over the dislike ratio being displayed only to the Youtube creators and not to the viewer? The question bugged me for some time. Was it necessary? Did Youtube have to take the dislikes off all videos or is there a reason to protect its creators from harassment?
On February 15, 2005, Youtube was founded in San Mateo, California by Jawed Karim, Chad Hurley, and Steven Chen. What propelled the need for video content was the lack of videos of the 2004 Superbowl half-time show on the internet. Thus, they created the major platform that would share videos online and created its first Youtube video, Me at the zoo, of co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego zoo.
Since its span in the mid-2000s to the present day, Youtube has been one of the biggest online video sharing platforms for creators creating content such as clips, music videos, video blogs, gaming, movie trailers, podcasts, and so much more. The audience watches a video, shares it with other people that either like/dislike the video seeing the number of dislikes the content has. Over the years millions if not billions of videos are uploaded and everyone could see the dislike ratio at the time.
That all changed when Youtube announced the disabling of the dislikes for all videos on its platform. Only creators can see their dislikes logged into their channel. Of this, many videos are greatlydisliked by the public that since the dislikes are disabled you’d come to find in the comment section below all videos of users and creators comments on videos that were greatly disliked that other YouTubers commented on to remember those times.
To give a clear understanding about Youtube dislikes, theirs one video game franchise that had one of their game reveal trailers greatly disliked. The trailer for Call of Duty Infinite Warfare. Revealed in 2016, after the release of the trailer, massed more dislikes everyone saw on the internet because most gamers, even myself, started getting tired of the Call of Duty franchise releasing a new game almost every year and would not be surprised if they milk the franchise into the ground. Even I use to like the video game franchise until the series wore out its welcome. The dislike ratio is no longer there but people remember.
There’s more to it than just the dislike deactivation. Since the removal, it has become either divisive or controversial. Given the extent where creators take issue with it, the impact of public visibility of the video’s reception. One common view is that people watch videos on their mobile phones on the go most days instead of YouTubing the video at home on the computer. Prevent harassment from people that are threatened from dislike attacks, Youtube experimented to prevent dislikes for videos. Youtube clarified the removal was to also protect the creator’s mental health or well-being that any targeted campaign would find the motivation of disliking anyone’s videos because they dislike the creator of their content.
The dislikes can be a signal to users where a video is possibly clickbait, spam, that could mislead anyone. Dislikes are useful, but even newer creators just starting are dislikedattacked unfairly. Truthful as it is because most smaller Youtube channels than big Youtube channels are easier to target. Not even allowed to not even know what the channel is about or the creator’s niche is given a dislike attack for no reason.
Youtube ran tests experimenting on the dislike attacks where no details or specifics of their data are given. They ran tests for months with analysis and the impact the change had for both users and creators alike. Even Instagram a few years ago experimented on hiding dislike counts on a global scale that possibly could be detrimental to its users and creators in their community to not feel safe to express themselves on the platform. Eventually, Instagram gave the decision for its users to hide likes under their control, keeping their status quo intact.
The changes on Youtubes’ dislike count at a time of public reckoning of big tech companies and how it’ll affect a creator’s mental health, especially with kids under the age of 18. A reassessment of systems designed to target and influence user base and changes to coming regulations. Lawmakers asking Youtube in their hearings to create legislation of big tech problems that mental health being one of the areas of interest along with and targeting privacy and algorithmic boosting of clickbait misinformation.
Youtube platform has been required to increase its protection and privacy, mostly for users under the age of 18. Prevent kids from content not suited for their age group. Considering other areas of Youtube that could be toxic for any other broader groups.
