As someone who has used YouTube since it’s inception, many of its features have become familiar installations to me. I still remember, for example, when comments would be automatically hidden after receiving too many thumbs down. Though the specifics of the systems have changed, the like/dislike bar has remained mostly the same, serving as an indication of popularity (or unpopularity as the case may be).
Recently, though, YouTube has become concerned about “Dislike Mobs,” large groups of people abusing the dislike function for the express purpose of diminishing the popularity of something they don’t like. After some consideration, they’ve come up with a solution… of sorts: removing the dislike button altogether.
YouTube users have been criticizing the site for this statement, saying that if there are any problems with low-quality video content, it’s because of measures that YouTube has already taken or refuses to take. Removing the dislike button would not fix anything, and only make actual low-quality videos harder to filter out. Some have speculated that YouTube’s supposed beef with “dislike mobs” stems actually from the massive number of dislikes their YouTube Rewind 2018 video received (a record-breaking 15 million), and that YouTube is intentionally obfuscating the issue.
YouTube has not made any official changes just yet, but it’s probably safe to assume that if the dislike button were removed, users would find a new way to make their displeasure heard.
