YouTube might REMOVE its dislike button to combat 'dislike mobs'
Tom Leung, director of project management at YouTube has revealed that the platform is considering its options to combat ‘dislike mobs’
YouTube(Image: REUTERS)
It’s one of its most popular features, but YouTube could be ditching its dislike button.
Tom Leung, director of project management at YouTube has revealed that the platform is considering its options to combat ‘ dislike mobs ’.
He said: “This is where a group of people will go to a video, not even watch it, and purposefully click the thumbs down.”
One of YouTube’s ideas is to make likes and dislikes invisible on videos by default.
Me Leung said: “This is an interesting one, because on the one hand you could say, if I show the ratings and there’s a lot of people who like the video, that’s a signal to viewers that this is a really cool video.
YouTube(Image: TASS)
“So in some ways, not showing it may not be what the creator wants.”
Another option is asking users to provide more information on why they disliked a video.
Mr Leung said: “That would give the creator some more information, like they don't agree with you, they don’t like your channel in general, they feel like the information was insufficient, who knows.”
Latest tech news
However, he added that this option would be difficult to build and implement.
Finally, YouTube is considering removing the dislike button entirely.
Mr Leung said: “That’s a very extreme option. It doesn’t seem very democratic in my opinion, because not all dislikes are ‘dislike mobs’, they’re just people expressing their opinion.”
He added that these were very early ideas, so we’ll have to wait to see what YouTube decides.
