Irony has hit YouTube quite hard. What was supposed to be its marquee video for this year – in the form of ‘Rewind 2018’ – has turned out to be the most disliked video on the platform. The over eight-minute-long montage that was supposed to be "celebrating the videos, music and moments that defined 2018" on Youtube has faced intense backlash from the community – creators and audiences alike.
With 11 million dislikes at the time of writing this, 'YouTube Rewind 2018: Everyone Controls Rewind' has surpassed Justin Bieber's ‘Baby’ video to find itself at the number one spot in the hall of infamy.
For context, Bieber's music video has got 9.8 million dislikes in a span of more than eight years, since it was uploaded on 19 February 2010. The ‘Rewind 2018’ video – uploaded on 6 December 2018 – whizzed past 'Baby' in a mere eight days.
Viewers made their distaste quite apparent, with viewers' comments reading, "this video let me down to be honest :(" and "they literally skipped all the actually relevant stuff that happened this year"
So What Went Wrong?
The problem boils down to a widening rift between the YouTube community and the platform itself. And 'Rewind 2018' is an embodiment of that, pandering to the advertisers and ignoring the community.
This is what The Verge says about the whole issue:
“The community, which was once celebrated by YouTube, no longer feels included in the culture YouTube wants to promote. It’s unclear what the company will do going forward, but one thing’s for certain: YouTube Rewind is no longer a celebratory moment the community looks forward to.”
How YouTube Reacted
A representative from YouTube told The Verge that they are taking into account all the feedback that is coming in.
“Honest feedback can suck, but we are listening and we appreciate how much people care. Trying to capture the magic of YouTube in one single video is like trying to capture lightning in a bottle... Keep the feedback coming and maybe we’ll release a top 10 list of ‘Rewind dislike’ reaction videos.”YouTube representative to The Verge
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