YouTube wants to put a stop to “dislike attack” campaigns
The internet is a magical place where anything and everything can happen. Unfortunately, the internet is just as much a home to negativity as it is to positivity. We’ve seen numerous cases wherein the internet has banded together to accomplish something that’s not good for everyone else. A good example of this is a “dislike attack” campaign where several hundred if not thousands or millions of people go ahead and give a video a “thumbs down” in an attempt to send a message. While disliking videos to show discontent and take a stand can be a noble cause, this feature has been used by far too many on YouTube for no good. Because of this, YouTube has decided to remove the feature entirely. Don’t worry. The dislike button isn’t going anywhere. Viewers can still dislike videos that they don’t, well, like. However, this is all done in private now and only to help YouTube’s algorithms know what kind of videos to recommend to you. At the same time, creators can still track how many people disliked their videos, but it will be a private metric going forward. Ironically, YouTube has earned itself the dubious distinction of possessing the most disliked YouTube video over. The 2018 YouTube Rewind video is the platform’s trend recap video for that particular year. Naturally, it amassed 221 million views. Unfortunately, it also has 19 million dislikes and counting. Speaking of dislikes, Nintendo’s recent Switch Online Expansion Pack trailer is the company’s most disliked YouTube video ever and it’s not even close.
