Suppressing the negative?

[Jolly]

Nah. They wouldn't do that, would they?

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/number-biden-and-democratic-partys-youtube-dislikes-mysteriously-dropped

[jon-nyc]

They might. They might also just be suppressing bots.

Hard to tell.

[Loki]

Both assumptions are entirely reasonable.

Why would anybody at this point also not think that likes/dislikes on social media are like robo calls?

[Copper]

I just disliked about a dozen versions of his convention speech. We'll see how long the dislikes live.

[Aqua Letifer]

@Loki said in Suppressing the negative?:

Both assumptions are entirely reasonable.

Why would anybody at this point also not think that likes/dislikes on social media are like robo calls?

They are and they aren't.

Everyone on social media has to deal with some percentage of (1) fake likes, follows, whatever, from bots, and (2) lost likes, follows, whatever, from algorithm suppression. But as you gain popularity, (1) increases while (2) decreases. That's especially true on YouTube, where the platform suppresses the hell out of your channel for about 6 months to a year when you just start out. They do that because they don't want to publicize a channel that's not going to last. They want to see first that you're a consistent uploader, then they let you be more found by others. After that comes more exposure in the recommended column.