YouTube is making a big change to the dislike option on videos. Starting from December 13, 2021 the dislike count will not be visible publicly even though users will be able to dislike a video as the option will be in its place.

YouTube has been experimenting to make the dislike count disappear for the viewers for a while and now they are fully up to make the dislike counts hide, but only for the consumers. It was believed that most people judge a video by its likes and dislikes ratio whether it is a funny, entertaining video, or a useful tutorial, or something like that. Most viewers make the decision to watch a video by its likes and dislikes ratio.

So, is it not disrupting viewers’ choices by hiding YouTube dislike count? Or in other words, aren’t they loosing out on a great criteria in judging a content’s worth?

Based on research, that YouTube conducted on millions of videos, it is found that dislikes did not actually play a role in making a decision to watch a video. Instead they feel, the count is creating more problems and disrupting creativity.

YouTube is of the opinion that this development will lead to following benefits:

Reduction of dislikes out of personal hatred

According to YouTube, they have analyzed that most people dislike a video just because they don’t like the creator. This is why, creators don’t have many views even though the impressions are good. That demotivates them in creating new videos, especially when talents are new on YouTube.

Preventing demotivation among creators

YouTube stated that this decision is to safeguard the creator from demotivation and to support the new ones, who are just starting out on their journey. Engaging viewers and generating high views on a consistent basis is already a tough task, which require patience, hard work and consistency. On top of that, getting dislikes on a video, only out of personal grudge, can kill the enthusiasm of a creator, which in itself is very hard to keep in the long-run without much reward.

Create an inclusive platform

YouTube wants its platform to be all inclusive, where everyone should have the right to voice their opinion, irrespective of popular views. No one should be discriminated from getting an opportunity to have their say, just because others do not comply with it. Hiding the dislike count resulted in videos from not getting discriminated based on the opinions that it may hold through its content.

YouTube also clarifies that it does not relate to YouTube Rewind, which has the highest number of dislikes to a video(YouTube Rewind 2018) on YouTube. There are many instances where people have inner hate for a specific creator and bombarded the dislike button.

However, dislikes helping YouTube creators to decide why people are disliking their videos and if they should change anything. That’s why YouTube creators still will be able to check their video’s dislike stats if they want.