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YouTube is hiding dislikes but this plugin could bring them back

The plugin is still in development and may not be 100% accurate.

youtube dislike button
Image: KnowTechie

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Last week, YouTube made it possible to hide the dislike count of videos on the platform, and many people were pretty upset about the feature. Now, someone is working on a plugin that will restore the dislike count on videos that have it hidden.

But why are people so upset about the new feature? YouTube said that it is doing this as a way to help protect creators from public ridicule and coordinated attacks. But that’s not ultimately what the feature will accomplish.

Now, it’ll be tough to know if a tutorial video is helpful before watching it. Sure, you can read through the comments, but that can take a while.

There’s also the potential to protect major companies and brands from potentially valid criticism regarding their business practices.

One programmer has taken it upon themself to fix this problem. Revealed by a report from TheNextWeb, this programmer has created a Chrome extension, as well as an independent API, that will generate the dislike count for certain videos that have dislikes disabled.

However, the program isn’t perfect. It will only work based on the information that YouTube’s API returns. And it looks like Google is removing dislikes completely from its own API on December 13, meaning that this plugin won’t have access to the necessary information.

Instead, the programmer is going to lean on the users of their extension to estimate dislike count going forward. Unfortunately, that won’t give completely accurate results, as most YouTube users won’t be using the plugin.

Still, this is a valiant effort from the programmer. It’s clear to see that people aren’t too happy about this new feature from YouTube.

You can try out this new API here and the Google Chrome extension on Github, but be careful. These programs are still in early alpha forms, and there could be bugs or issues associated with them.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Staff writer at KnowTechie. Alex has two years of experience covering all things technology, from video games to electric cars. He's a gamer at heart, with a passion for first-person shooters and expansive RPGs. Shoot him an email at alex@knowtechie.com

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