YouTube’s decision to remove public dislikes has already faced widespread criticism. Many have come forward to voice opinions on the platform's decision to remove dislikes, including one of the people who helped create the website.

YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim uploaded the first-ever YouTube video, “Me at the zoo,” in April 2005. Recently, Karim decided to weigh in on the site’s decision to hide dislikes by editing the description on his original video. He came down hard on the decision, suggesting it will inevitably lead to YouTube’s decline.

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Karim begins his statement by drawing attention to what he saw as a lack of sincerity and enthusiasm from Matt Koval’s announcement of YouTube’s decisions to stop publicly displaying dislikes. He then points out the absurdity of someone styled as “YouTube’s Creator Liaison” endorsing a change that virtually no YouTube content creators support. Karim goes on to argue that visible dislikes are a necessary part of keeping YouTube alive. He explained that the purpose of Likes and Dislikes is to help viewers identify quality content from the sea of user submissions.

Karim calls this “the wisdom of the crowds” and says it’s necessary for any site driven primarily by user-made content. He further explains that the idea of YouTube was never that all content is good. Instead, the platform’s creators believed it would allow the best content to rise to the top. Karim argues that removing dislikes from YouTube will make it harder for viewers to find videos worth watching. This lowers the site’s quality overall, and Karim worries it will eventually lead to YouTube’s downfall. His complaints are similar to those of Twitch Streamer xQc, who felt it would open the door for scammers.

In fairness, it’s not as if likes and dislikes were ever a perfect system. For example, in October, the Nintendo Switch Online expansion pack trailer was flooded with dislikes due to pricing complaints. Additionally, any video discussing a controversial issue risks inviting a similar reaction. News outlets in particular seem to attract a disproportionate number of seemingly unwarranted dislikes. Still, while the system is hardly perfect, removing dislikes from YouTube seems a bit like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

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Jawed Karim also brought up YouTube’s questionable motives for the change. He seems skeptical of the official claim that it’s to prevent harassment, saying, “Why would YouTube make this universally disliked change? There is a reason, but it’s not a good one, and not one that will be publicly disclosed. Instead, there will be references to various studies. Studies that apparently contradict the common sense of every YouTuber.”

Karim doesn’t speculate openly about what he believes is the company’s hidden reasons for removing dislikes from YouTube’s video and livestream content. However, he clearly doesn’t think it will benefit YouTube content creators or even the site’s long-term sustainably.

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