Public dislike counts were opportunities for brands to own up to their ambition for authentic engagement. This is maybe the main thing lost here - without putting this at stake, and with full moderation powers on their video comments, brands basically only have a veneer of authenticity at this point. There's not as much at stake for them anymore, very limited downside / reason to care.

> engagement

That's the word. It isn't really "likes" in the sense that we normally think of it. It's ticks on the relationship of "engagement" to "dollars".

IIRC, Facebook was pretty upfront about this being why they didn't implement a "dislike" button; the information wasn't valuable to them.

Facebook said it lowered engagement iirc, same reason why they removed likes count on Instagram, it reduced engagement, people posted less if they feared being judged by the number of likes.

And now you've got me wondering if anyone has ever tried to compare likes to profitability of product launches.