YouTube has improved the sys­tem it has in place that val­i­dates likes and dis­likes. As a result, the total num­bers are now more accurate.

This infor­ma­tion was announced by a rep­re­sen­ta­tive from YouTube on the YouTube Help Forum. “YT Lukas” says the platform’s val­i­da­tion sys­tem will ensure that likes and dis­likes are com­ing from real peo­ple, rather than bots or com­put­er programs.

“Start­ing today, we’re mak­ing a sys­tem update to catch even more spam in likes and dis­likes across YouTube. The main rea­son a like would be marked as spam is when it’s pur­chased from a third-par­ty ser­vice. Pay­ing for likes or dis­likes is a direct vio­la­tion of YouTube’s Terms of Service.”

This update will also apply to likes and dis­likes that have been giv­en to a video pri­or to today.

That means likes and dis­likes may fluc­tu­ate if a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber are found to be invalid.

“If more likes or dis­likes on your chan­nel are marked as invalid than before, you may see fluc­tu­a­tions start­ing on June 14, 2018… You may also notice that the num­ber of likes or dis­likes in YouTube Ana­lyt­ics is dif­fer­ent than what you see on the watch page under the video. This is a known issue and our team is work­ing to fix it. In the mean­time, view the counts on the watch page for the most accu­rate number.”

The num­ber of likes and dis­likes on a YouTube video is an impor­tant sig­nal for cre­ators, as it is a fac­tor that deter­mines what shows up in search results and the rec­om­mend­ed videos section.

With that said, this announce­ment should come as good news to cre­ators, espe­cial­ly those who may have received an unfair amount of dis­likes from detractors.

SOURCE