Social media plays a key role in letting people across the world express themselves, communicate with others and view content they would never be able to see otherwise. YouTube, a social media platform with over two billion users allows creators to upload all kinds of videos to its site. It also allows people to judge others’ content through the popular use of likes and dislikes seen on many other social media. However, YouTube recently removed the ability for users to see the number of dislikes a video has, going against the site’s very purpose and causing issues for creators and users alike.  

The dislike counter served as a clear indicator of a video’s quality for viewers. Sophomore Lucas Roca said, “The dislike button warns users about bad content, and without it users may waste their time watching low quality content.” Knowing the number of dislikes served as a way for users to tell if a video featured clickbait without having to scroll through the comments.  

Sophomore Koko Vanchev said, “The dislike button is necessary to show the viewer’s opinion without leaving a negative comment.” In an attempt to stop hate on their platform, YouTube inadvertently increased it. Viewers will now be more incentivized to leave a damaging comment instead of just disliking the video, which will only hurt creators more than the dislike counter ever did. If YouTube comments become even more hateful than they were before, this may lead to the banning of comments altogether. 

  Users may also feel as though their opinion and thoughts are not heard. Roca said, “In a sense, it regulates free speech.” Viewers have the right to voice their dissatisfaction with a video as much as they do their satisfaction. Limiting any aspect of that restricts freedom of expression for billions of users worldwide.  

The decision to ban the dislike counter is ironic as it conflicts with Youtube’s entire existence in the first place. According to Interesting Engineering, Technology expert Christpher McFadden said, “[YouTube was originally created so] that users could use the site to upload, share, and view content without restriction.” Constricting the ability of users to express their opinions conflicts with the fundamental goal of YouTube. 

While Youtube’s removal of the dislike button is misguided and will have large repercussions for the platform, hopefully the site will realize the mistake and reverse its policy. As one of the largest social media companies on the planet, Youtube has the responsibility to protect free speech of all its users, something this new policy has failed to uphold. Until the company realizes its mistake, users will have to express dislikes in a new way, and we will just have to hit play and see what they come up with.