The tech giant said the update to its platform is to prevent smaller creators who are being targeted by dislike brigading and to promote “respectful interactions between creators and viewers.”
“Groups of viewers are targeting a video’s dislike button to drive up the count, turning it into something like a game with a visible scoreboard. It’s usually just because they don’t like the creator or what they stand for,” said YouTube creator liaison Matt Koval in a video accompanying the blog.
YouTube viewers will still be able to dislike a video, but the count which displays the number of dislikes will only be able to be seen by the video’s creator.
It comes after YouTube trialled making the dislike count private earlier on in the year, which the company says resulted in a reduction of dislike attacks.
“We are proactively making this change because YouTube has a responsibility to protect creators, especially smaller creators, from harassment and dislike attacks,” a spokesperson said.
