Several users on Reddit and other online forums have reported a bug that shows negative dislikes for certain YouTube videos.
YouTube videos have negative dislikes
The dislike button on YouTube videos is one of the core metrics of the YouTube Analytics API. It shows the number of times users responded that they disliked a video by giving it a negative rating. YouTube monitors the users’ sentiments and engagement through the dislike button.
Whereas for YouTube content creators, it helps to indicate how many viewers did not like their content or left dissatisfied. Viewers can promptly react to a video by simply tapping the like or dislike button on YouTube videos.
However, for the past some time, this feature has been suffering from a bug, as there are reports of negative dislikes on YouTube videos.
“literally titled can u see the ratio glitch. has -397 likes and -283 dislikes” Reddit
“My youtube video got negative dislikes” Reddit
“How is there a negative number of dislikes?? Does anybody how that’s even possible?” Reddit
The above comments indicate that YouTube videos are showing the number of likes/dislikes in a negative figure which may be confusing for viewers. It could be assumed that YouTube has introduced upvotes and downvotes, something similar to Reddit. But then it seems impossible as likes or dislikes are two separate values on YouTube.
A YouTube bug
As of yet, the confirmed explanation for these negative dislikes is this is simply a bug. It is a virtual bug and doesn’t affect a video’s engagement. But still, YouTubers are not really happy with this annoying glitch.
Moreover, YouTube has not released an official statement regarding this bug but it seems like the matter is already in its knowledge.
As a user posted a tweet on YouTube’s official Twitter account to fix the negative dislikes issue, he received this reply:
“We find that clearing the cache and cookies of your browser usually fixes issues like this. Let us know if that info helps.” Team YouTube
This might not be a stable workaround but at least YouTubers can try their luck to get rid of negative dislikes on their videos.
