Did someone leave a dislike on one of your YouTube videos, and you want to find out who it is?
Not only would this be useful information to find out, but it can even help prove if someone is disliking a bunch of your videos out of spite.
Regardless of your reasoning, I understand. In this article, I’ll be covering whether it’s possible, why YouTube made this decision, and how dislikes can actually help you as a creator.
Let’s get started!
Can You See Who Disliked Your YouTube Videos?
Currently, YouTube does not allow you to see the specific people who have disliked your videos on YouTube.
That being said, you can view a lot of aggregated data about your dislikes in the YouTube Creator Studio, by digging deep into your analytics.
This will not only show you which videos are receiving dislikes, but even let you see video performance data based on things like age, country, and subscription status.
That way, you can discover how your content is resonating with specific groups of people, even though you may not be able to find the specific people leaving you dislikes.
Tip: If you are a small creator and don’t get a lot of dislikes every day, you can use analytics to pinpoint whether or not somebody is disliking a bunch of your videos out of spite, or whether the dislikes are legitimate. For example, if you suddenly get a bunch of dislikes on a bunch of different videos on the same day and under the same demographics, this would indicate it’s just one person doing it.
Why Doesn’t YouTube Let You See Who Dislikes
So, why doesn’t YouTube let you see who has disliked your video? Surely this would be useful information, right?
Ultimately, it comes down to privacy.
YouTube benefits from people being able to watch whatever they want, and express their opinion on a video without other people ever knowing it was them.
This is likely the same reason why you can’t see who viewed your YouTube videos either. If this information was available to the YouTuber, people would be far more reluctant to use YouTube while signed in, where their data can be linked to them.
Because advertising is YouTube’s primary business model – and targeted advertising benefits from being able to collect as much data on a user as possible, YouTube needs to encourage people to use the dislike feature, not dissuade them from it.
Plus, if people could see when you disliked one of their videos, it’s possible that the creator could get angry, or retaliate against you in some way.
There is ultimately no real benefit – only downsides.
So, YouTube has made the appropriate decision to keep the people who dislike your videos private.
Dislikes Can Actually Help You. Here’s How!
Although dislikes aren’t pleasant to see, they can actually work to your benefit.
Yes, that’s right – they may actually be a good thing!
Let’s look over a few ways that dislikes can help you as a creator on YouTube.
1. They Can Give An Algorithmic Boost
This one sounds counterintuitive, but it’s true!
YouTube treats likes and dislikes near-equally when it comes to giving your videos a boost in their algorithm.
This is because their algorithm looks for engagement signals to determine how interesting or captivating a video is. In this regard, likes and dislikes are treated equally.
To learn more, I recommend reading over this article: Do Dislikes Matter On YouTube? Here’s The Effect They Have…
2. They Provide Useful Data
Next, we have to put our egos aside for a moment, and look at things objectively.
If someone actually dislikes our video or found it unhelpful, we want to know about it.
Ultimately, the quality of our content is what actually matters, and if we want to succeed on YouTube we need to know when we’re doing something wrong.
Checking your dislikes – especially relative to other videos on your channel can help you craft a more effective YouTube strategy in the future.
Additionally, breaking down the data on what specific groups are disliking your videos – which is available in YouTube’s analytics, can be a great way to tailor your content further.
So, take some time to really think about why people are disliking your videos, and take steps in the future to make your content even better.
Conclusion
YouTube does not allow you to find out the specific accounts who disliked your video. However, you can view aggregated information about what types of people disliked your video in YouTube analytics.
If YouTube allowed creators to view the exact people who disliked them, this could result in backlash at worst, or people not using the dislike feature as frequently at best. So, the decision makes sense.
I hope that this article has answered all of your questions, and you fully understand why YouTube would keep this information private.
If you have any other questions about YouTube, please ask them below and I’ll be happy to help.
Wishing you the best,
– James McAllister
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