YouTube Denies Testing a Hidden Dislike Button as Screenshots Circulate
YouTube told The Verge on Wednesday, October 21, that it is "not testing hiding the dislike button on YouTube for users," even as users on X kept sharing screenshots that show the control inside the three-dot menu.
The Verge had reported the previous day, October 20, that YouTube appeared to be testing the change on videos. At least two users on X had recently posted screenshots of the dislike button placed in the three-dots submenu. Android Authority reported the same day that YouTube is testing a change that hides the Dislike button on regular videos, which would make it harder for viewers to register negative feedback. 9to5Google described new UI tests that made the button harder to use. The Times of India reported that the button may be moved into the three-dot menu for some users.
The company's position, as stated by spokesperson Kimberly Taylor, is narrower than the screenshots suggest. YouTube is introducing a new interface for creators on their own uploaded videos, in which the dislike control sits behind the three-dot menu. Creators can find full dislike counts in YouTube Studio, the dashboard the platform provides to channel owners. The statement did not address the screenshots directly.
Some background helps place the change. YouTube began hiding the public dislike count on videos in 2021 to reduce harassment, so viewers have since seen a button without a visible tally. Earlier in 2026, YouTube removed the dislike button from Shorts, its short vertical video feed. There, users can choose "Not interested" and "Don't recommend this channel" from the three-dots menu instead, according to a June report from The Verge.
In my view, the distinction YouTube is drawing matters and deserves to be kept separate from the screenshots. A creator-facing control that surfaces full dislike counts in Studio is a different product decision from a viewer-facing button that is harder to reach. Both can coexist, but a viewer who sees the button relocated on a video they are watching will reasonably read the change as affecting their own experience, whatever the internal intent.
The broader context here is that platform interface changes often arrive as staged experiments, rolled out to small cohorts before any wider release. A user sees a different layout, posts a screenshot, and the story begins before the company has described its plans. For creators, full counts in Studio are a concrete benefit. For viewers, the open questions are whether the dislike control stays where it has been, and whether any test expands beyond the cohorts currently reporting it. Those answers will show up in the interface over the coming weeks, where a reader can check them.
