Another online platform is looking to curb harassment and bullying. Social media apps and platforms have been strategizing to counteract cyberbullying and trolling, much like Instagram hiding the number of likes on posts to Facebook banning and deleting users who target celebrities. Earlier this year, YouTube began experimenting with its “dislike” button, hiding the number of dislikes a video may receive.
According to the platform, they were testing if dislike counts would reduce if the number wasn’t visible to viewers. YouTube wrote on its blog that when they hid dislike counts, the numbers went down significantly.
“As part of this experiment, viewers could still see and use the dislike button,” the company wrote. “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. In short, our experiment data showed a reduction in dislike attacking behavior. 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.”
YouTube also stated they hope to continue to create a space where creators “feel safe to express themselves.” Trolls have already vowed to dislike as many videos as possible. Watch a video about the shift below.
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