I'm taking this into my own hands... - YouTube Dislike Button
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Go to nordpass.com and use code LINUS to get 70% off a 2-year NordPass Premium plan plus 1 free month! Get 10% off all Jackery products with code LinusTechTips at jackery.com YouTube removed the Dislike counter from beside the thumbs-down button...but there's a way we can bring it back using a Chrome Extension and a little stick-to-itiveness Buy a Gaming PC On Amazon: geni.us On Best Buy: geni.us On Newegg: geni.us Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group. Discuss on the forum: linustechtips.com ►GET MERCH: lttstore.com ►SUPPORT US ON FLOATPLANE: floatplane.com ►LTX EXPO: ltxexpo.com AFFILIATES & REFERRALS --------------------------------------------------- ►Affiliates, Sponsors & Referrals: lmg.gg ►Our WAN Show & Podcast Gear: lmg.gg ►Private Internet Access VPN: lmg.gg ►Our Official Charging Partner Anker: lmg.gg ►Secretlabs Gaming Chairs: lmg.gg ►MK Keyboards: lmg.gg ►Nerd or Die Stream Overlays: lmg.gg ►Green Man Gaming lmg.gg ►Amazon Prime: lmg.gg ►Audible Free Trial: lmg.gg ►Our Gear on Amazon: geni.us FOLLOW US ELSEWHERE --------------------------------------------------- Twitter: twitter.com Facebook: @LinusTech Instagram: @linustech Twitch: twitch.tv FOLLOW OUR OTHER CHANNELS --------------------------------------------------- Mac Address: lmg.gg Techquickie: lmg.gg TechLinked: lmg.gg ShortCircuit: lmg.gg LMG Clips: lmg.gg Channel Super Fun: lmg.gg They're Just Movies: lmg.gg MUSIC CREDIT --------------------------------------------------- Title: Laszlo - Supernova Video Link: youtube.com iTunes Download Link: itunes.apple.com Artist Link: soundcloud.com Outro Screen Music Credit: Approaching Nirvana - Sugar High youtube.com Intro animation by MBarek Abdelwassaa @mbarek_abdel Monitor And Keyboard by vadimmihalkevich / CC BY 4.0 geni.us Mechanical RGB Keyboard by BigBrotherECE / CC BY 4.0 geni.us Mouse Gamer free Model By Oscar Creativo / CC BY 4.0 geni.us CHAPTERS --------------------------------------------------- 0:00 What YouTube did 1:58 What we can do about it 2:40 How well does it work? 4:30 What about new videos? 5:40 How YouTubers can help 6:20 Looking at the Numbers 7:40 What about Mobile? 9:15 Am I doing the right thing? 10:50 Why is YouTube doing this? 13:13 outro
In the opening section of the video, the host outlines the core premise: YouTube removed the public dislike counter with the stated goal of reducing dislike attacks, especially toward smaller channels. He questions the sincerity of this motive, suggesting a broader tension between platform health and creator visibility. The discussion quickly pivots to a practical player in the narrative, a Chrome extension created by an open-source community aimed at restoring the dislike counter. He demonstrates how the extension is installed via a simple browser add, and notes occasional minor failures due to ongoing changes in Chrome's manifest requirements. The host emphasizes the collaboration and speed of the open-source ecosystem, praising contributors and donors while raising questions about accuracy and long-term viability of the approach. He then transitions to a sponsor break and uses the moment to introduce hardware and software tools that intersect with the broader theme of digital autonomy and data privacy. By the end of this first segment, the video sets up the core tension: can a community-led technical workaround compensate for a platform policy decision, and what are the tradeoffs involved?
Topics · technology · privacy · open_source · internet_culture · youtube_policy
Questions answered
- What is the primary motivation behind restoring the dislike counter with the extension?
- The extension aims to restore historical dislike data by using the YouTube API data before it was cut off and by estimating dislikes for newer videos through user interactions, while acknowledging potential privacy concerns and the need for ongoing reliability.
- What are the main privacy considerations raised by using the extension?
- The extension collects user interactions to estimate dislike counts, but the code is open source and intends to anonymize data to avoid linking to YouTube accounts, with safeguards to minimize data collection while preventing spam and abuse.
- Can this extension be relied upon for accurate counts on all videos, including new uploads?
- Accuracy is more reliable for older videos with pre-cutoff data, while for newer videos the extension makes educated guesses based on limited publicly available signals, so results may vary and are not guaranteed to be perfect.