NEW YORK : YouTube announced Wednesday the tally of “dislike” clicks on videos will no longer be visible to the public to protect creators from harassment and targeted attacks.
A public count of likes — or dislikes — that social media posts rack up is regularly cited by critics as harmful to well-being, and Facebook as well as Instagram have allowed users to opt out.
Users on the Google-owned video sharing platform will still be able to click on the “dislike” button below a clip, but they will no longer see the negative review count.
“To ensure that YouTube promotes respectful interactions between viewers and creators… we experimented with the dislike button to see whether or not changes could help better protect our creators from harassment, and reduce dislike attacks,” YouTube said in a statement.