New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on December 14, 2021) follows:

YouTube is the world’s largest video sharing platform and the internet’s second most visited website after Google. With billions of users worldwide, the company recently made some significant changes to the platform and decided to hide the number of dislikes on videos.

Ever since YouTube made the changes, people have been furious and expressed their frustration in various ways, with some bombarding the YouTube app page on the Play Store with 1-star ratings.

youtube-dislike-counter-extension-not-working

That being said, some YouTube users have resorted to third-party extensions and add-ons like ‘Return YouTube Dislike’ that show the number of dislikes on a video.

While Google said they made the decision will help creators with toxicity on the platform, many disagreed since the like to dislike counts is an indicator of how good the content is.

YouTube-dislike-extensions-stopped-working
Source

Does the Chrome extension “Return Youtube Dislike” work for you? It doesn’t for me. The claimed to switch over to an estimation model (and gathered dislike data for older videos) once the API field for dislikes is being removed, but I haven’t found any video where the extension actually shows dislikes.
(Source)

Many YouTube users were wondering and confused why their third-party extensions are not working. As it turns out, YouTube recently updated its API and removed the ability for the public to see the dislike count on a video.

Brace yourselves! Tomorrow YouTube is updating their API which means all third party plugins that can still reveal dislike counts and are based on the YouTube API are going to break.
(Source)

However, creators will still be able to see the counter. Here is what YouTube said on the matter.

What’s changing with dislikes starting today:
Based on what we learned, we’re moving forward with making the dislike count private across YouTube–this means that the dislike button is staying, but the number of dislikes on a video will only be available to creators in Studio and not visible to the public on the video’s page. This change is gradually rolling out starting today.
(Source)

It seems they really want users to forget about the counter. With these third-party extensions no longer working, it looks like there is no way for YouTube users to see the dislike count now.

But who knows, maybe someone will figure out a way to see the dislike count or YouTube themselves may revert the changes. We really hope YouTube brings back the dislike button counter since it is an integral part of the platform.

As always, we will be keeping an eye out on the matter and update this article as and when required, so make sure you stay tuned.

Update 1 (January 10)

A recent Chrome update has disabled the Return YouTube Dislike extension. If you are wondering how to fix it, head here to know more.

Update 2 (January 18)

Vanced has just recently announced that they are working on bringing the dislike counts back with third-party integration on YouTube.

So, users who are concerned about dislike counts can check them on YouTube Vanced. However, they did not share any ETA as to when exactly this feature will be available for users.

Update 3 (February 17)

03:41 pm (IST): The latest version of Vanced (v17.03.38) brings back dislike counts on YouTube.

Note: We have more such stories in our dedicated YouTube Section so be sure to follow them as well.

PiunikaWeb started as purely an investigative tech journalism website with main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.

Anurag Chawake
1373 Posts

My fascination with technology and computers goes back to the days of Windows XP. Since then, I have been tinkering with OS, mobile phones, and other things. When I am not working on anything, you will find me enjoying video games on some Discord server.

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