YouTube has pushed back on reports that it is hiding the dislike button from viewers, saying the layout change some users have spotted applies only to creators looking at their own videos.
The reports surfaced in recent days, when some users noticed the dislike button was no longer visible beneath a video and had been moved into an overflow menu. The apparent change prompted considerable confusion, in part because the dislike button has long been a sore point among YouTube's community.
That tension dates back to when YouTube removed the public dislike count that once appeared next to the button. Against that backdrop, the sudden disappearance of the button itself led many to assume the platform was taking another step away from showing negative feedback.
In a statement to 9to5Google, YouTube said that is not the case. The company confirmed that what people have seen is neither a test nor a change coming to videos in general. The new placement shows up only on the watch page of a video the viewer uploaded, which means a creator will see the altered layout on their own content and nowhere else.
A YouTube spokesperson put it this way: "We are not testing hiding the dislike button on YouTube for users." The spokesperson added that the company is "introducing a new UI for creators on their own uploaded videos, where dislike is behind the three-dot menu."
Creators do not lose access to the numbers, according to the statement. As has always been the case, they can find their full dislike counts in YouTube Studio, alongside their other analytics.
9to5Google said it was able to reproduce the behavior right away when it checked one of its own videos, with the dislike option tucked behind the three-dot menu as the spokesperson described.
The clarification suggests that anyone watching videos uploaded by others should still see the dislike button in its usual spot. Only uploaders viewing their own pages will notice the rearranged controls.
The episode comes amid a steady stream of YouTube product news. Recent reports have said the company is looking into adding audiobooks to Premium, has begun a slow rollout of GIF support in comments, and is bringing automatic background play to Android Automotive cars.
