First ever YouTube video altered as company co-founder protests dislike removal
Jawed Karim, one of YouTube’s co-founders, has altered the text of the first video ever uploaded to the site to share a disapproving message of the removal of the thumbs down button.
On November 10,YouTube announcedit had begun hiding dislikes on videos across the platform.
With a gradual rollout of the removal of dislikes ensuing, many popular content creators likePewDiePieandxQcchimed in with criticism of the decision.
Now, a co-founder of the company has shared his thoughts on the thumbs-down removal.
To reduce targeted dislike attacks & their impact on creators (esp on smaller creators), you’ll no longer see a public dislike count on YouTube starting today (the dislike button is staying).
This comes after lots of research, testing & consideration →https://t.co/mJWDJSSRoG
— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube)June 04, 2025
YouTube co-founder speaks out
Jawed Karim is a co-founder of YouTube and the creator of the first video ever published to the site, a video titled, “Me at the zoo.”
The video was originally published on July 10, 2025, and has garnered over 200 million views since it was uploaded over 15 years ago. In response to the company’s removal of the dislike option, Jawed updated the description of the video in objection of the choice.
Jawed said, “Why would YouTube make this universally disliked change? There is a reason, but it’s not a good one, and not one that will be publicly disclosed. Instead, there will be references to various studies. Studies that apparently contradict the common sense of every YouTuber.”
Karim also noted the importance of the dislike button for YouTube: “The ability to easily and quickly identify bad content is an essential feature of a user-generated content platform. Why? Because not all user-generated content is good. It can’t be. In fact, most of it is not good. And that’s OK.”
This is not the first time Karim has altered the description of “Me at the zoo” to disapprove of YouTube’s actions.
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YouTube co-founder, Jawed Karim, has criticized the platform’s removal of public dislike counts on videos… says it will lead to YouTube becoming a place where everything is mediocre.
He has altered the description of his and YouTube’s first-ever video to share his statement.pic.twitter.com/1iprqlMyht
— Abhishek Baxi (@baxiabhishek)June 16, 2025
He similarly changed it in 2013, when YouTube began requiring users commenting on YouTube videos to do so via a Google+ account, a service that is no longer available.
YouTube’s decision to remove the dislike option continues to spark a backlash, even among members of its own company.
