YouTube Removing Dislike Count

# What is happening?

YouTube is perhaps the last bastion of open-source, longer-form quality content on the internet. Sure, there are smaller competitors, but they lack the network effect which has propelled YouTube to its current astronomical heights. In fact, most of YouTube’s current competitors are shorter-form content platforms such as Instagram Reels and TikTok.

Recently YouTube announced that it will be removing the Dislike count from its platform, meaning that while content consumers can still Dislike content, the count will no longer be visible to other content consumers. The official excuse is that the Dislike feature hurts content creators’ mental health. I personally don’t buy this.

For one, content creators will still be able to see their Dislikes counts privately and there is already a feature to turn off the public Dislike count. The only effect of the upcoming change will be to remove the stigma of removing the Dislike counts on videos, as currently only heavily Disliked videos have their counts removed.

Let us consider two scenarios: a creator making quality content being unfairly Disliked by coordinated attacks, and a creator who gets Disliked for putting out bad content. For the first scenario, I don’t doubt that the Dislike button has been abused by people to wage wars on creators. The solution should be to make it harder for people to abuse the system (better bot checking, anomaly detection, etc.) rather than to get rid of the system itself. Preventing these attacks better protects the creators than allowing the creators to get attacked but just not show the damages publicly. For the second scenario, by reducing the pain of negative feedback, the creator has less of an incentive to iterate and improve their content or quit, leading to worse content being put onto the platform over time and a worse audience experience. Also, if one flinches easily at negative feedback, perhaps a career or hobby which involves being very public is not the best decision.

# Why is this bad?

The most immediate effect of obfuscating the market between content creators and consumers is that worse content can be more easily proliferated. If it's easier to make bad content and get away with it, then more people will do it. Content creators get compensated by engagement; if a content creator can put out bad content and trick consumers into engaging with the content, the creator can still get paid. There are countless videos currently on YouTube that clickbaits audiences and offers very little value. Even worse, these videos can offer negative value, such as perpetuating false information or scams. YouTube removing Dislike counts will make it much harder for consumers to distinguish between bad content and good content.

Just last week, I looked up a tutorial for building a Discord bot. I was curious why the video hid its Dislikes count. I clicked through to the end of the video but the video maker did not show the code in action. I then went on the Github repo associated with the video to discover that, not only did the code not run, it was also plagiarized from another repo. Without the signaling value of the Dislike count, I would have wasted my time trying to follow along to a tutorial that doesn’t even work.

Removing the Dislike count also discourages content consumers from Disliking content. While on the surface this may seem like a good thing, as the platform appears more positive. This is actually very bad for determining which videos should be shown to users. The content/ attention marketplace thus becomes even more inefficient as the recommender system gets one less source of data, leading to poorer recommendations and thus a poorer user experience.

# Why are they doing this?

Without a doubt, YouTube removing the Dislike count will hurt content consumers, atleast in the short run. So why are they doing this?

It’s no secret that attention spans are shrinking, especially for younger audiences. YouTube is losing market share (audience attention) to video platforms which optimize for short-form content. Most (not all) of short-form content is low quality and low effort. YouTube is clearly trying to win back market share, or atleast stop the market share bleed with its YouTube Shorts platform. Having a Dislike button is a good user experience for longer-form content where users have autonomy to choose what they watch. For many shorter-form content platforms, where new videos are scrolled upon without a user’s explicit input, the user experience does not rely on the Dislike count. The Dislike button thus becomes less important to a platform shifting towards shorter-form content where users don’t get to decide what they see next.

On top of this, negative feedback can deter engagement. YouTube is losing the engagement war against the likes of TikTok. Many content consumers, especially younger audiences, don’t particularly care about the quality of the content, but more about the novelty and surprise factor of content. By dampening the impact of negative feedback, YouTube can encourage creators to experiment with new and unconventional content ideas. Furthermore, if users can’t distinguish quickly whether content is good or bad, users will engage with bad content longer.

Finally, a more positive platform, even if it's only superficially so, will still be more palatable for advertisers than a platform that accurately reflects user sentiment. Businesses don’t want any negative association with their brand and removing Dislike count removes negativity.

I personally don’t use TikTok and don’t really plan to. I also enjoy longer-form content. For me, YouTube’s decision will undoubtedly worsen my user experience on its platform. As attention spans continue to shorten and short-form video continues to gain attention market share, I don’t fault YouTube for making this decision. Businesses have to do business and YouTube, with its size and influence, must protect its market share and knows exactly what it can do to do so. It also knows exactly what it can do and still get away relatively unscathed. I have no doubt that most people will get past this decision in a few weeks. I just hope that people will remember the days when content audiences were encouraged to fully express their opinions on the internet, even if it's negative.