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YouTube seeks ways to prevent abuse of the dislike button on its mobile app

By Alan Friedman

Published: Feb 03, 2019, 10:23 PM

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YouTube is concerned about a red hot button issue revolving around, well, the dislike button on the YouTube app. This is actually the thumbs down button found under the title of the video. YouTube project management director Tom Leung posted a video this past week, revealing that the Google owned video streamer is trying to stop "dislike mobs" from negatively influencing affected videos. These groups vote down certain videos in numbers large enough to reduce the number of recommendation they receive; this could result in a lower number of views for a clip than it would have received otherwise.

The "dislike mobs" usually pound away at the thumbs down button for reasons that have nothing to do with the actual content of the video; these mobs might not like the person or company that created a video, or want a positive review of a game or phone to be overlooked by YouTube viewers. Right now, video creators can go into preferences and disable the thumbs up and thumbs down ratings, but Leung says that other options are "lightly being discussed" by YouTube.

Some options being considered would require someone downvoting a video to check a box that gives the reason why they decided to do this. There is also talk that YouTube might remove the thumbs down button completely. Leung says that this would not be democratic since not all dislikes come from dislike mobs. Another idea would force a YouTube user to watch at least 25% of a video before the thumbs down option becomes available to be tapped.

Check out Tom Leung's comments by tapping on the video at the top of this article.

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Alan, an ardent smartphone enthusiast and a veteran writer at PhoneArena since 2009, has witnessed and chronicled the transformative years of mobile technology. Owning iconic phones from the original iPhone to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, he has seen smartphones evolve into a global phenomenon. Beyond smartphones, Alan has covered the emergence of tablets, smartwatches, and smart speakers.

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