Online video
sharing platform YouTube recently announced it would hide dislike click counts
in order to protect small creators from harassment and to promote healthy
interaction between viewers and creators.

Viewers on the
Google-owned platform will still be able to click on the dislike button below a
video, but will not be able see the negative review count.

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“At YouTube, we
strive to be a place where creators of all sizes and backgrounds can find and
share their voice. To ensure that YouTube promotes respectful interactions
between viewers and creators, we have introduced several features and policies
to improve their experience,” YouTube said in a blog post

“Earlier this
year, we experimented with the dislike button to see whether or not changes
could help better protect our creators from harassment, and reduce dislike
attacks — where people work to drive up the number of dislikes on a creator’s
videos,” the platform added.

“As part of
this experiment, viewers could still see and use the dislike button. But
because the count was not visible to them, we found that they were less likely
to target a video’s dislike button to drive up the count,” is said.

Changes to YouTube
come as major social media and video platforms are often blamed by lawmakers,
regulators and security agencies for not doing enough to combat cyberbullying.

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Facebook is facing
one of its biggest problems, driven by leaked internal documents, showing that
managers were aware of the potential damage that could be caused on their
platforms. Revelations of the leak by former Facebook employee Frances Haugen
have provided p new impetus after the Big Tech corporate management talks.
Concerns about the potential dangers of Facebook have spread to other platforms
with TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube trying to convince US members of the forum
last month that they are safe for their new users.