Have you ever wanted to disable the likes and dislikes count on one of your YouTube videos? You can do it and we show you how, but then question whether you should or you shouldn’t.
When you are logged into YouTube, you should see your channel logo in the top right-hand corner of most YouTube screens. If you click on that, you have the option to go to YouTube Studio (this is currently in beta, but will become the standard as 2019 progresses.) Go to the ‘Videos’ tab where you’ll see a list of your uploads, with the most recent first. Select the video that you want to amend the likes to dislikes count for, and then click on the advanced tab at the top.
Now there’s just a very simple change required on this screen. If you scroll down, you should see a checkbox that says users can view ratings for this video. Something to take note of at this point is that, although the count is disabled, viewers can still like or dislike your video and that will be reflected in the video list on your analytics.
Why Hide YouTube Likes & Dislikes?
So, that’s how you do it. Now let’s answer the question of whether you should. From a viewer’s perspective, if they cannot see the likes to dislikes on a video, there’s one burning question that’s going to be in their head. And that is, why? At the very least it raises curiosity because most people will find it a little suspicious. The default conclusion that viewers will likely come to is that the video creator has hidden the public stats because there’s too many dislikes on the video and they don’t want the viewers to see that. This often falls into the same question as why YouTube creators hide their subscriber count. By default, both subscriber counts and likes to dislikes counts are shown publicly.
On the other hand, in the defense of the video creator, sometimes their videos are being maliciously attacked by random numbers of mass dislikes, which they cannot control. YouTube has recognized this is a problem and they want to address it with your help. Check out this video from the YouTube Creator Insider team where they talk about this exact topic.
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Carla Marshall has 10+ years of experience in video marketing, social media management, content marketing, DRM, and SEO. She was previously Editor in Chief at ReelSEO.com, and as a journalist and video marketer, she's covered news stories, creator journeys, and digital-first publishing initiatives across all the major online video platforms. She is YouTube Certified and a judge for the Shorty Awards, as well as the UK, US, Canadian, Global, and EU Search Awards.
