YouTube dislikes started to disappear today and remained invisible for about five minutes. Many believe this might have been a test run by Google for blocking browser extensions that expose dislike numbers.
Dislike counts have been invisible for quite some time for standard YouTube viewers. However, certain browser extensions unlock these hidden figures, letting users truly understand which way the critical wind is blowing. YouTube dislike ratios have become something of a barometer of public opinion in the entertainment world, with companies like Disney and Amazon Prime Studios coming up on the wrong side of the thumbs up vs. thumbs down social survey many times.
The Dislike Ratio for the Snow White Trailer as of December 5, 2024 – YouTube, Disney
READ: Hollywood Turns on Rachel Zegler as Snow White Trailer Is Flooded with Dislikes
In the last forty-eight hours, we’ve seen Disney’s new live action Snow White trailer featuring Rachel Zegler ratio’d into oblivion, with more than half a million dislikes to twenty-three thousand likes.
During today’s livestream of The Pro Show with WDW Pro, the dislike count vanished across all of YouTube, even for those using browser extensions that uncovered the truth. This was first brought to Pro’s attention by Youtube Content Creator Knee Payne.
The Like to Dislike Ratio for the Snow White teaser trailer as of December 4, 2024 – YouTube, Disney
Dislike numbers remained invisible for about five minutes before coming back, leading many to wonder if YouTube was running some kind of test on a feature that would block browser extension from uncovering what the public truly thinks about media like Snow White.
Check out Pro and Jonas J. Campbell reacting to YouTube dislikes starting to disappear live in the video player below.
READ: Snow White Trailer Dislike Ratio EXPLODES in First 24 Hours on YouTube
“It sounds like the this particular extension, which is one of the more popular extensions that does this, has been disabled,” Jonas said on the show.
“And it’s being disabled just coincidentally at the same time that Snow White is being buried with dislikes and could cost Disney hundreds and
hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars,” Pro added.
Rachel Zegler as Snow White in Snow White (2025), Walt Disney Studios
“I would bet in a situation like this that someone from Disney was talking about how much money they spend on this platform and how much money they spend on ads and how much traffic is driven to this platform,” Jonas said later in the video. “I bet there was also a conversation about the fact that Snow White did not premiere this trailer on YouTube. Instead, several days, maybe a week beforehand, this went to theaters, only making everybody go to YouTube search this trailer and then leave empty-handed. So, I I think that there have probably been some active discussions with YouTube about whether or not their trailers are going to end up on the platform at this point. I think this is probably not a conversation that started today. I don’t think Bob Iger or whoever is in charge of communications at the Walt Disney Company just got on the phone and said turn them off right now. I think that there has been a weeks long discussion if not a monthlong discussion about the dislike situation here between Walt Disney Company trailers and of course probably companies like Amazon with Rings of Power getting ratioed into oblivion.”
Rachel Zegler as Maria in 20th Century Studios’ WEST SIDE STORY. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2021 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
This issue was reported across several dislike monitoring platforms, which means it wasn’t a glitch in a particular extension. It was something that happened at the source, at YouTube. Now the question becomes was this intentional, and will we see it again?
Why do you think YouTube Dislikes started to disappear today? Do you believe YouTube is going to get rid of the ability to see dislikes through third party extensions? Or was this a temporary glitch? Sound off and let us know your thoughts!
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