YouTube's war on the Dislike button appears to be far from over

YouTube is no stranger to controversial design changes, and if you thought that it was done messing with how dislikes work on the platform, think again. What started out as YouTube removing the dislike counter all the way back in 2021 matured into the streaming giant removing the button on the platform’s short-form videos. Now, it looks like the same treatment will make its way to the platform’s long-form videos.

YouTube has been spotted experimenting with a hidden dislike button on regular, long-form videos. While the change hasn’t made its way out widely, it is a sign of where the platform might be heading next, and users clearly aren’t pleased, as pointed out by Neowin.

User reports across X and Reddit suggest the change went live for some roughly two weeks ago, with those affected noticing that the familiar thumbs-down icon had vanished. Unlike the Shorts implementation, though, which has transitioned to a different feedback system, the dislike button hasn’t outright been removed for long-form videos. It’s still there; you just need to do a little digital digging to find it tucked in the three-dot menu.

So, essentially, disliking a long-form video could soon require a lot more effort than liking one. Expect the change to prevent valid criticism from making its way to creators, at least partly.

For what it’s worth, when Google announced that it would be getting rid of the Shorts dislike button in June, it said “Dislikes will continue to be reported as usual for long-form videos and Live.” That statement is only partly true now. Dislikes are still being registered, however, burying the button in the three-dot menu could discourage viewers from leaving feedback in the first place.

Viewers, as expected, aren’t happy with the change, and they’re making it known.

Reddit user Draconian7453 wrote:

Everything has to be sunshine and rainbows. No negativity allowed. No dislikes. Only a matter of time before negative comments on videos are done away with.

X user selejthajító, on the other hand, said what most users have been feeling for a while now:

Changing stuff around for the sake of changing stuff around.

The change hasn’t made its way out widely, suggesting that this could be an early A/B test. Several users report that the dislike button is right where it has always been on their devices, and that’s also the case with me. However, considering that similar experiments on Shorts eventually resulted in YouTube outright retiring the dislike button, we wouldn’t be surprised if YouTube comes out arguing that not enough people use the dislike button or that its alternative Shorts-like feedback system works better.