YouTube is taking a unique approach to helping protect the well-being of creators on the platform. A new test announced by the platform will publicly hide the number of dislikes on a video, but a creator can still see these stats in YouTube Studio.
YouTube’s new test is in response to a survey done seeking to curb targeted dislike campaigns. On top of that, YouTube said the feature would help protect creators’ well-being.
“We’ve heard from creators that the public dislike counts can impact their well-being and may motivate a targeted campaign of dislikes on a creator’s video.”
Such is not surprising, given the standard nature of humans to amplify negatives and downplay the positives.
“We’re testing designs that don’t include the visible like or dislike count in an effort to balance improving the creator experience while still making sure viewer feedback is accounted for and shared with the creator,” the company said on a support page.
The test will begin with a small group of users as the platform tries to find the perfect design for the like and dislike buttons that appear below YouTube videos. Here’s one of the potential designs on the table:
One of the potential designs for the dislike button that doesn’t include a visible dislike count: YouTube
However, users who will be part of the experiment can still dislike videos, an essential metric that YouTube uses to fine-tune recommendations. The only thing that will now be kept private is the number of dislikes a video has.
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