The action of viewing the number of negative ratings a YouTube video has received provides quantifiable feedback regarding audience sentiment. For example, a viewer might utilize browser extensions or other tools to see the numerical dislike count on a particular piece of content.
Access to this data historically allowed viewers to quickly gauge a video’s quality, credibility, or potential bias before investing their time in watching it. The visibility of this metric offered content creators direct insight into audience perception, facilitating adjustments to future productions. Furthermore, it provided the community with a collective, publicly available signal of the general opinion of a piece of content.
