Article Updated: 11 Jan 2020
HOW TO DISABLE RATING DISPLAY IN YOUTUBE VIDEO
Ok, we’ve all been there. You put a nice video, really spend some time on making it, and before you know it — it already has it’s first dislikes! Now, I wouldn’t mind if the like:dislike ratio is something like 3:1, or even 2:1 for a fresh one, but it really kind of sucks to see a dislike on a new video with zero up votes! You may also read why users rarely vote on your videos? article.
I will not go into detailed discussion here whether negative voting should be removed from YouTube entirely, there are PROS and CONS to both sides of the story. But, to tell the truth, if I find even 1% of the information from the video useful -> never down vote. Ever. Period.
So, what can you do? YouTube does not allow us yet do disable downvotes. But, if you feel there is a real unbalance in your video ratings simply hide them from the view! Your visitors can still vote – don’t get that wrong, but the ratings won’t be shown in public anymore and by known psychological effect lure others to downvote it as well. Over time, your ratings might improve (in most cases do), so you can switch back this option at any time.
There is another possibility: YouTube Comment Bot activity on your channel. If you search on Google about these bots, you will find that some people actively look for them on various forums etc. They wish to artificially boost popularity of their own, or maliciously humiliate and disgrace others videos.
Do these bots really exist? Well, they certainly do, but given the huge efforts from people at Google, they have a very short life period and limited effectiveness. Publicly available voting bot tools are quickly ab(used) and spent, because of very easy way to detect patterns and abnormal voting activities in a relatively short bursts of time. However, some other, private tools designed for specific tasks (“customers”) could be used periodically to inflate or deflate content popularity.
Hybrid human-bot networks which are run by human coordinators through software which connects “human bots” (real people/individuals that serve network’s particular goals) are the most dangerous kind today, as their influence is often subtle, covered under real normal everyday user activity, and if your channel gets hit by one of their “dislike bombs”, then you should really pray for the miracle. YouTube’s (Google’s) artificial intelligence machine-learning algorithms might not always detect those anomalies, as they can almost imperceptibly act over the course of several weeks, even months, to discredit your videos/channels.
You might be a victim of such ill activity. If you notice unusual amount of votes in your video over a day, week or month, please report this activity to YouTube support staff immediately.
How to hide YouTube video ratings from Public display
From Desktop PC – YouTube Studio
STEP #1:
Open youtube.com from your browser, login into YouTube account, navigate to YouTube Studio page, and then go to Videos:
STEP #2:
Click on More options tab:
STEP #3:
Un-check / un-tick the option: Users can view ratings for this video
From YouTube Studio Mobile App
STEP #1:
Open YouTube Studio app, tap on one of your uploaded videos from the list and click on Edit symbol (pencil):
STEP #2:
Tap on ADVANCED SETTINGS tab and switch off the option: Users can view ratings for this video
DONE!
Remember, voting will be still possible, just the numbers won’t be shown publicly anymore!