YouTube will hide dislike counts on videos to reduce harassment

YouTube
(Image credit: ERIC PIERMONT/AFP via Getty Images)

YouTube users will no longer be able to see how many dislikes a video has, a step the platform says it's taking to reduce harassment against creators.

YouTube announced Wednesday it will make the dislike counter on videos private across the site, meaning the number of dislikes a video has will only be viewable by its creator. The company said it experimented with taking this step earlier this year in an attempt to "better protect our creators from harassment, and reduce dislike attacks." The result of this experiment, YouTube said in a blog post, was that people were "less likely to target a video's dislike button to drive up the count" if they couldn't see this count.

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Brendan Morrow

Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.