YouTube says it isn’t testing hiding the dislike button
The interesting part is how fast two screenshots on X turned into a published story. Someone spots a UI change, posts it, a reporter runs with it, then a spokesperson shuts it down. That's the news cycle in miniature.
I think the denial deserves some weight, but the phrasing matters. The denial is precise, targeting only the word "hiding". It leaves room for other changes, like moving the button or redesigning the menu. The company has history here. It hid public dislike counts in 2021 and took heat for it, so users are primed to see any tweak as the next step.
What I'd want to know is what those screenshots actually showed. A glitch, a stray experiment, or a real A/B test that got rolled back quickly? The spokesperson's careful wording leaves room for interpretation. Trust around this feature is already fragile, and a vague denial doesn't do much to rebuild it.