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During a recent livestream, Zack “Asmongold” criticized YouTube’s recent decision to make the dislike count private across the platform.
On November 10, YouTube announced via a public blog that they had decided to make the dislike count private on the platform. Asmongold believes the move is aimed at making it easier for corporations to spread propaganda on YouTube.
While the platform has not removed the dislike button, the dislike count is no longer visible to viewers. Asmongold criticized the decision and claimed it had not been made to protect creators from harassment.
Asmongold claims YouTube removed dislike count to allow corporations and government to spread propaganda
YouTube claimed that the decision to make the dislike count private was made in a bid to ensure that creators of all backgrounds can find and share their voice on the platform. Earlier, the platform had run various tests and found that people were less likely to target a video’s dislike button to drive up the count if it was not visible to them.
The experiment showed a reduction in dislike attacking behavior among YouTube viewers. As a result, the platform has decided to make the dislike count private permanently without removing the dislike button itself. Additionally, the blog also claimed that multiple smaller creators have complained in the past about viewers targeting them with dislikes unnecessarily:
We also heard directly from smaller creators and those just getting started that they are unfairly targeted by this behavior — and our experiment confirmed that this does occur at a higher proportion on smaller channels. Based on what we learned, we're making the dislike counts private across YouTube, but the dislike button is not going away. This change will start gradually rolling out today.
While the reasoning seems logical, Asmongold believes that the dislike count has been made private for entirely different reasons. The streamer claimed that YouTube simply wants corporations and governments to be able to effectively spread propaganda on the platform:
This is like my abridged opinion. It's like, the YouTube dislike system, it makes it more friendly towards corporations pushing propaganda and not being able to get criticized by the audience. That is all it is. It just makes the website more friendly towards corporate propaganda. And also government propaganda too. Yeah, that’s all it is.
Apart from propaganda, the World of Warcraft streamer claimed that predators and abusers will be able to escape scrutiny on the platform due to the recent move. Asmongold concluded by saying that YouTube had made users more unsafe via the move.
