From RT.com…..
YouTube has announced that it will temporarily hide how many ‘dislikes’ a video has received. The news went down poorly online, but President Joe Biden’s social media team might be happy with the change.
At a glance, the number of thumbs down a YouTube video has received can tell a user to steer clear. The video could be boring or misleading, or the creator could say something so unpopular that thousands of viewers log in to downvote it to oblivion. Then again, mass downvoting campaigns have been launched against some users, and YouTube claims to have listened to these users’ pleas.
The video platform announced on Tuesday that it would be hiding the number of dislikes on videos for some users over the coming weeks, as part of a “small experiment” launched “in response to creator feedback around well-being and targeted dislike campaigns.”
👍👎 In response to creator feedback around well-being and targeted dislike campaigns, we're testing a few new designs that don't show the public dislike count. If you're part of this small experiment, you might spot one of these designs in the coming weeks (example below!). pic.twitter.com/aemrIcnrbx
— YouTube (@YouTube) March 30, 2021
Viewers will still be able to dislike videos, but only creators will be able to see how unpopular their content is.
