YouTube announced early Tuesday morning that it would be removing the public dislike counter on certain channels as a "response to creator feedback around well-being and targeted dislike campaigns."
It's worth noting that channels already had the option of removing the dislike counter, but the action also removed the visible number of likes.
"If you're part of this small experiment, you might spot one of these designs in the coming weeks," YouTube tweeted, including an example of the experimental toolbar.
Almost immediately, YouTube content creators and other netizens rejected the removal of a feedback tool they consider to be useful.
When asked how users will be able to know the public response to the video, @TeamYouTube claimed that the platform will "continue to tune recommendations based on likes and dislikes."
"Viewer feedback is an important part of YouTube, but we've heard from creators that the current experience can negatively impact their wellbeing," @TeamYouTube tweeted. "We also know that public dislike counts sometimes motivate targeted campaigns of dislikes on some videos."
At the same time, many netizens expressed doubts that it was creators who were behind the feedback change.
Though the White House YouTube page has undoubtedly taken a hit when it comes to the like-dislike ratio, the netizens' theory remains unsubstantiated by YouTube or the Biden administration.