Social media platforms have largely removed or hidden the dislike button. That may have helped turn an old idea, “there’s no such thing as bad publicity,” into a basic rule of social media: there’s no such thing as bad engagement.
A dislike gave negative attention somewhere to go. Without it, disapproval often becomes comments, replies, shares and reaction videos. A 2026 study of YouTube found that after public dislike counts were hidden, comments increased, became longer and grew more negative.
This creates an obvious incentive for outrage influencers and public nuisance streamers like Johnny Somali. People watch because they are angry, comment to condemn the behavior and share it because they want others to see it. All of this produces more attention for the person they want to punish.
The dislike button did something most engagement metrics do not. It separated attention from approval. Removing it made that distinction much harder to see.