YouTube’s dislike button rarely shifts recommendations, researchers say

For YouTube viewers dissatisfied with the videos the platform has recommended to them, pressing the “dislike” button may not make a big difference, according to a new research report.

YouTube has said users have numerous ways to indicate that they disapprove of content and do not want to watch similar videos. But all of those controls are relatively ineffective, researchers at the Mozilla Foundation said in a report published Tuesday. The result was that users continued receiving unwanted recommendations on YouTube, the world’s largest video site.

Researchers found that YouTube’s “dislike” button reduced similar, unwanted recommendations only 12 per cent, according to their report, titled “Does This Button Work?” Pressing “Don’t recommend channel” was 43 per cent effective in reducing unwanted recommendations,