Does YouTube delete video dislikes?

Question

On some YouTube videos, particularly highly downvoted ones, I often see comments asserting that their dislikes on the video are being deleted, either by YouTube or the channel itself.

From the Gillette "We Believe" ad:

Fake dislike count: 761k of dislikes.. Real (but censored) dislikes count: 2.6M of dislikes..

Fake likes, and removing dislikes. I will Never buy Gillette again, i hope they go out of business.

I disliked the video. But, it is automatically getting undisliked. YouTube is being dishonest.

Without YouTube's cloak of censorship, this video would have about 3 million dislikes.

Anyone else noticing that the downvotes are diminishing? As I write, the downvotes are 138,153—yet when I first saw this video a few minutes ago, they were at +140,000 downvotes. Is Susan Wojcicki massaging the numbers at Gillette's urging? Inquiring minds want to know.

A post from the Google Product Forums:

What can be done to stop YouTube's moderators from deleting another 3 MILLION dislikes and another 3 MILLION comments they don't agree with for political reasons from this video?

Reddit: YouTube removing dislikes from rewind:

Don’t be dumb... youtube caches dislikes so that there main servers don’t get pounded with millions of people doing this. Dislike once and wait maybe a hour and check later, it will be there.

I just disliked, and it was at the same number they’re definitely deleting shit

Reddit: Blizzard somehow just deleted 100k dislikes from their Diablo announcement video

Bottom line: when there's a lot of automated activity, Google comes in every now and then and scrubs the data of anything that looks suspect. Not shockingly (given that 4chan has been heavily involved in the uproar) there are a lot of bots involved in this process.

People are saying maybe they cleared bots but why didn't the likes go down either, at least by SOME amount.

So my questions are:

Is it true that the number of dislikes on a video can and does decrease en masse over time? (It seems to be true.)
What might be the cause of this? Can a channel delete dislikes? Does YouTube have an automated algorithm that deletes dislikes that seem to be from bots? Does YouTube remove dislikes if you haven't watched 80% of the video? (Obviously, it's possible that users might decide to all undo their downvotes later, but that seems implausible.)

Please only answer with actual evidence and not personal theories such as "they do it", "it's an anti-fraud script", "it's eventual consistency", etc. Skeptics is not the place for speculation and personal opinions, but for reporting facts. We delete answers which are not reference based. — Sklivvz, Jan 17 '19 at 08:14
In none of the linked pages do I see anything actually *showing* a decreased number (note: the imgur link in the Reddit link does not play). Voting to close as 'no notable claim'. — , Jan 17 '19 at 08:19
@JanDoggen this is really notable, see: https://www.google.com/search?q=diablo+disappearing+dislikes — Sklivvz, Jan 17 '19 at 10:12
Note that there most probably will be no official detailed answer. Google doesn't want you to game the ranking system (which likes and dislikes are part of), so they will be intentionally vague about its inner workings. Much like SO won't tell how exactly the vote reversing script works. — Dmitry Grigoryev, Jan 17 '19 at 12:02
@Sklivvz Fine, but the OP should show some more facts then pointing to sites that just repeat claims — , Jan 17 '19 at 13:12
If they are dislikes from the YouTube Android app, there's an bug (at least for me) where the like/dislike buttons do not represent whether or not you liked or disliked the video if you closed out the video then return to it at a later time. If you then go to tap the like/dislike button you pressed before, the app will tell you that you liked or disliked the video, as if you never pressed those buttons in the first place. — , Jan 17 '19 at 13:33
It should be noted that Youtube would be reasonably justified in trying to reject likes/dislikes produced by "bots". Whether this is their only motivation, and whether they are doing a reasonable job of it, however, is impossible to judge from this distance. — Daniel R Hicks, Jan 17 '19 at 13:43
Regarding bots, in this case I find it plausible that the "real men" who got angry by being told stuff they didn't like, is more likely to fire up bots to downvote, than the sane men who agree that there is a problem is to bot-upvote. — Lenne, Jan 17 '19 at 23:44
The Diablo dislikes disappeared because Blizzard re-uploaded the video and changed the URL in the launcher. its fairly well understood what happened with the diablo announcement. — Polygnome, Jan 18 '19 at 12:34
On a sorta related note, dislikes on *comments* are purely cosmetic and do not affect the tally in any way; this is *speculated* to be the result of the comments system being jerry rigged from G+, which only has likes. — htmlcoderexe, Jan 20 '19 at 14:31
@coteyr True, SE does delete votes - here's an [explanation of Stack Exchange's vote-deleting policy](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/126829/what-is-serial-voting-and-how-does-it-affect-me). In short, they delete "serial voting", when an algorithm detects voting patterns that appear to be attempts to game the system, like punishing or sock-puppeting particular user(s) rather than voting based on quality. — user56reinstatemonica8, Jan 20 '19 at 17:07
There's a few minor reasons why the count can fluctuate due to anti-bot policies and the like. IF there are "malicious" edited like/dislike removals, then we'd never find out anyway because they'd hide it well enough, considering what the blowback would be if they got caught with it. So it's either fair, or we won't be able to prove otherwise. — Gloweye, Jan 21 '19 at 13:46
The odds are very high that "They are deleting my dislikes" is conspiracy-theorist code for "People aren't as angry about this unimportant thing as I am, and its confusing!" — Shayne, Jan 24 '19 at 01:25
@JanDoggen why? They provided quotes claiming specific things. The lack of precise numbers shouldn't have an effect on whether the claim is valid or not or can be validated/invalidated. If they had specific numbers chances are that would mean the people making those claims already have concrete proof and it doesn't need validation. — user64742, Jan 26 '19 at 02:17

score 202 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 24 '19 at 00:14

Yes, they do. They will also delete likes.

However, the comments quoted and the general complaints on that video about dislikes going away are based on the claim that Gillette is either paying YouTube to delete dislikes, or that Gillette is doing it, itself.

One reason why YouTube deletes some likes and dislikes is because people often use likes, dislikes, followers, etc on social media to boost their own agendas or careers, so faking or manipulating popularity or unpopularity is pretty common.

To this end, there are business set up with individuals manning banks of devices so a person can deliver hundreds of "clicks" for a paying customer, low tech, or can set up automated programs/bots to simulate activity from different users, for the same result.

To give you a general definition of clicks farms, they can be defined as:

An undercover operation in which individuals fraudulently interact with a website to artificially boost the status of a client’s website, product or service.

This basically means that somewhere in the world there are people that work behind closed doors fraudulently promoting other peoples products and services for a fee. Since the definition is fairly broad, this means that the fraudulent activity can take place on almost any platform although the most popular ones are Facebook and Instagram. It doesn’t matter if the group is selling Facebook likes of Twitter followers, they’re all classed as click farms.

PPC Protect: What is a click farm

It is in the interest of social media platforms to identify this kind of fraudulent manipulation to maintain their own integrity. So in this case, where people who don't like Gillette's ads are seeing nefarious manipulation by either Gillette, or YouTube as a paid proxy for Gillette, really it's the opposite - they are rooting out and screening nefarious and fraudulent activity that they identify.

As noted in another answer -

You may see like/dislike counts change as some may be marked invalid and periodically removed from the counts. Learn more about our Likes Policy.

YouTube: Likes and Dislikes report

Clicking on the "likes policies" hyperlink takes you to -

Artificial Traffic Spam

Anything that artificially increases the number of views, likes, comments, or other metric either through the use of automatic systems or by serving up videos to unsuspecting viewers, is against our terms. Additionally, content that solely exists to incentivize viewers for engagement (views, likes, comments, etc) is prohibited.

YouTube:Spam, deceptive practices and scams policies

_really it's the opposite - they are rooting out and screening nefarious and fraudulent activity that they identify._, or at least that's what they claim. The only thing we _know_ is that they do remove dislikes at their own discretion. — sgf, Jan 27 '19 at 16:25
@sgf - no we don't know that. That makes it sounds like there's someone at a screen "nope, don't like that.... that's okay" - while they may set the parameters for what they feel is fraudulent or misleading, creating an algorithm to root that out removes much of the discretionary aspect and makes it a more objective one. We know that **likes and dislikes** are removed. We know what they disclose about their policy. "At their own discretion" implies something that is not a given, either. — PoloHoleSet, Feb 07 '19 at 16:34
Well, it implies that they judge what falls within their policy without asking anyone outside their company holding them accountable. And I don't see anything in your sources to the effect that they pledge to let all dislike removals be done by algorithm. — sgf, Feb 10 '19 at 16:00
@sgf - While I'm sure there is some manual intervention, in response to requests, given the size of YouTube, and their parent company, and how their parent company operates all of their business, are you really suggesting that Google uses manual labor for the bulk of this kind of maintenance? — PoloHoleSet, Feb 11 '19 at 15:34

score 166 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 17 '19 at 08:38

166

YouTube itself says that it can remove dislikes. From Likes and Dislikes report:

You may see like/dislike counts change as some may be marked invalid and periodically removed from the counts. Learn more about our Likes Policy. [outdated link]

answered Jan 17 '19 at 08:38

Andrew Grimm

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Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/88425/discussion-on-answer-by-andrew-grimm-does-youtube-delete-video-dislikes). – Oddthinking Jan 17 '19 at 21:59
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I think an answer like this requires more information, as it caries possible implication that YouTube has an agenda, which may or may not be accurate. The quote contains reference to a like/dislike policy, and I would think more information should be included from that (even if you have to find a newer link.) – trlkly Jan 19 '19 at 02:21
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@trlkly the answer does not carry any implication, you are putting it in. – Sklivvz Jan 19 '19 at 08:39
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Indeed, the answer does not carry any implication, but I think the question cites claims that have some implications. While this answer does address the title-part of the question, it lacks details and insights to allow evaluation of the claims. – Pac0 Jan 19 '19 at 14:11
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Exactly. It carries the implication forward from the question itself, since it does not refute it. The answer is quite short and thus does not Answer much of the question. I offered suggestions on how to improve this. – trlkly Jan 19 '19 at 14:14
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I don't think this answers the question. It answers whether or not YouTube _can_ delete dislikes, and it implies an answer to the title of the question, but the question itself also asks about channels deleting likes and whether YouTube does delete them for political and personal reasons. – TheWanderer Jan 19 '19 at 16:27
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This answer only answers part of the question. It would be nice if it were updated to address the second (imo more important) part, "What might be the cause of this?" – Carmeister Jan 20 '19 at 19:15
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Why does this answer reference the Likes Policy as an outdated link, but PoloHoleSet's answer provides important details of where that link goes? – DaveMongoose Jan 21 '19 at 17:35
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I've answered that YouTube can remove dislikes. There is not yet a well-specified, widely notable claim about "legitimate" dislikes being removed. – Andrew Grimm Jan 21 '19 at 22:17
Andrew: "There is not yet a well-specified, widely notable claim about 'legitimate' dislikes being removed." This would be good to add to your Answer. We all know comments may be removed and are intentionally deemphasized, so information contained in them may not be seen. – trlkly Jan 24 '19 at 10:39
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@trlkly, this answer correctly answered the only part of the claim that can be objectively answered. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. There is no need to *stress* the absence of evidence when there is no probable means by which such evidence would appear, short of a YouTube employee "blowing the whistle." – Wildcard Jan 25 '19 at 03:23
@Wildcard Yes, there is. The best Answer on all Stack Exchanges will attempt to answer all questions asked. Furthermore, this is a Skeptics Stack Exchange, and we are dealing with a **conspiracy theory** Question, and we thus have a duty to challenge any conspiratorial premise. That is what we do as (professional or amateur) skeptics. Our audience is not fellow skeptics, but ordinary people coming for a fact check. What matters is what an ordinary person would take away, not a hypothetical perfectly rational person. – trlkly Jan 25 '19 at 10:59
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@trlkly You mean the idea that a corporate entity would use its discretionary powers to increase its revenue (or standing with other companies) is a conspiracy theory now? – sgf Jan 28 '19 at 11:07

score 27 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 17 '20 at 09:41

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Yes, YouTube moderators can delete Likes and Dislikes.

Cinema of Change tracked the responses to the Gillette video over a short period.

With the help of YouTube’s API and Archive.fo’s screenshots of the video’s public numbers, we were able to test the claims of whether Gillette’s dislike and comment count were being subject to unusual moderator deletion.

[...]

Some of the figures that were mentioned in the claim in the question are exaggerated / not verifiable.

For Gillette's new ad, the deletion statistics (last in the chart below) are as follows:

5,396 Likes (0.80%)
57,399 Dislikes (4.58%)
174,162 Comments (34.23%)

If you're looking for the record-holder of dislike deletions, that's Blizzard with its Diablo Immortal trailer: 220,624 Dislikes deleted (23.33%)

_{Gillette deleted a potentially historic fraction, 34%, of its comments on the “We Believe” video. Blizzard removed 220,000 dislikes on its worst received game trailer, and YouTube banned 21% of the comments on the latest Rewind video}

edited Jun 17 '20 at 09:41

Community

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answered Jan 22 '19 at 19:40

user2535574

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Just an FYI for anyone wondering how "More t.a. Refugee" can have a negative number of comments deleted - the article's author is equally confused: *"“More than a Refugee” somehow has more comments publicly displayed than the server-side API query counted – I’m not sure how that’s even technologically possible"*. Maybe that's a reason to question their methodology, but otherwise this looks reasonable. – user56reinstatemonica8 Jan 25 '19 at 08:56
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While adding a "Yes" is indeed an improvement, I don't think "YouTube moderators" is the right term. I would say "Yes, YouTube can and did remove some likes and dislikes from this video." Otherwise, this is a high quality secondary answer which shows a good amount of effort. (A secondary Answer is my term for one that does not attempt to completely answer the question but adds additional information not given in the top or Accepted Answer.) Good job. – trlkly Jan 25 '19 at 11:23
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@trlkly unlike stack exchange were moderators are elected and are just regular users with special privileges moderators on youtube are actual employees of youtube. So the statement that moderators are deleting votes (human based deletion) rather than youtube itself deleting them (automated scripts) is hardly a notable difference. Note that without direct response from youtube itself nobody can actually know whether a human went through those votes and cleaned them up or an algorithm did or if an algorithm reported them and then adjusted manually. It certainly makes no difference here. – user64742 Jan 26 '19 at 02:14
@TheGreatDuck I agree there is not much practical difference. However, the Answer itself makes the distinction important. It claims that a "moderator" can "delete" votes. This addition makes the Answer inaccurate. Nothing from the data indicates that an actual YouTube moderator is deleting votes--it could be an algorithm. Furthermore, the term "YouTube moderator" is not unambiguously an employee. It can refer to someone given moderator powers by the channel owner. (See also "Twitch chat moderator".) As such, I believe this is a bad term that makes the Answer less accurat than before. – trlkly Jan 26 '19 at 08:51
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@trlkly No that would be a channel moderator. A youtube moderator means someone who moderates youtube, which would be employed by youtube. Saying a moderator *can* delete them does not mean they *do* delete them. They can delete the votes. A human component has to be in the system somewhere. It didn't pop out of the void so clearly any automated algorithm has access to the same things the company has access to. Whether a human *did* delete the votes or regularly delete the votes is different than saying they are capable. They have to be otherwise the algorithm can't do it either. – user64742 Jan 26 '19 at 17:04
@TheGreatDuck It is entirely possible to design a system such that automated processes have rights that no human users have. source: I develop software; most of the work I do is in process automation; most of the systems I design have components that don't even offer the possibility of manual manipulation by users _moderator or otherwise_. Not just that nobody has the permission, but it isn't a feature of the software.) This isn't to say it is impossible for some human _in the company_ to modify the system's data: (cont) – Mr.Mindor Jan 30 '19 at 00:36
(cont) a database administrator could run a script that delete records, but this sort of manipulation is outside the software itself, and (in my environment anyway) would require escalation of permissions and have audit consequences. Anyway... "Some human at youtube" is a big step from "youtube moderator" – Mr.Mindor Jan 30 '19 at 00:41

score 18 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 17 '19 at 16:32

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It's been previously documented that "glitches" can also alter the like/dislike ratio on a large scale, for example, a Justin Bieber video (including, bizarrely, adding dislikes to likes), so it's entirely possible:

https://heavy.com/social/2013/05/youtube-glitch-removes-dislikes-adds-likes/

Given YouTube control the stats behind the scenes, they can hypothetically do anything on likes/dislikes (similar to the 301 views cap). As for why it might be occurring, one can only speculate just short of an internal leak.

answered Jan 17 '19 at 16:32

SE Does Not Like Dissent

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What is the "301 views cap"? – MJ713 Jan 18 '19 at 22:05
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@MJ713 It used to be that a video on YouTube would get stuck at 301 views no matter how many there were for about a day or so. It had something to do with how often they polled it or something. I think they fixed it when they changed the maximum number of views before Gagnam Style broke it. – Azor Ahai -him- Jan 18 '19 at 22:37
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@MJ713 Until some time ago, YouTube only checked views after the video had more than 300. When a video got 301 views, it would get stuck on that number for some hours while all views were being validated. This was highly noticeable when popular channels launched a new video and it nearly immediatly reached the 301 views cap. Nowadays the views are validated immediatly. https://twitter.com/YTCreators/status/628958720953819136/photo/1 – Edu Jan 20 '19 at 19:26

Does YouTube delete video dislikes?

4 Answers4

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