YouTube is changing its Dislike button functionality in an effort to curb online harassment. While the Dislike button will remain, the dislike counts will be hidden to everyone but the content creator. That way, the creator can use it as a gauge of viewer feedback, without it becoming a platform for haters to pile on. The change will be rolling out gradually starting today.

YouTube says this follows a successful experiment of changing Dislike button functionality and how that impacted both creators and viewers.

"As part of this experiment, viewers could still see and use the dislike button," the company said in a statement. "But because the count was not visible to them, we found that they were less likely to target a video's dislike button to drive up the count. In short, our experiment data showed a reduction in dislike attacking behavior. We also heard directly from smaller creators and those just getting started that they are unfairly targeted by this behavior--and our experiment confirmed that this does occur at a higher proportion on smaller channels."