More dislikes than likes on ‘Modi hai to mumkin hai’ music video? Claims, counter-claims by Cong, BJP. Who’s right? – Alt News

In the run-up to the Bihar assembly elections, a song, “Modi hai to mumkin hai”, released on YouTube on September 22 by T Series, has sparked a debate. Several social media users, including leaders from opposition parties, noted that the video received a large number of dislikes. To support this, they shared screenshots showing both likes and dislikes, where the number of dislikes outnumbered likes.

The video features Bollywood stars, such as Rajkummar Rao, Varun Dhawan, Arshad Warsi, and Vikrant Massey.

Claiming that the song was unpopular, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate shared a screenshot on October 16 and wrote, “The song ‘Modi Hai To Mumkin Hai’ has caused a lot of embarrassment, it has 16 lakh views, the number of likes is 13,000, while the number of dislikes is 1 lakh.”

‘मोदी है तो मुमकिन है’ गाने ने बड़ी फजीहत करवा दी भाई लोगों

👀Views: 16 लाख
👍Likes: 13,000
👎Dislikes: 1 लाख

और कमेंट तो बस पूछिए ही मत! pic.twitter.com/PghxzYQFqy

— Supriya Shrinate (@SupriyaShrinate) October 16, 2025

Many users shared screenshots where the number of dislikes is much higher than likes. 

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Subsequently, BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya responded to these claims and said that Congress used “fake screenshots” to claim that the song had over 1 lakh dislikes. He cited the “fact” that YouTube stopped showing the number of dislikes in 2021.

In its desperation, the Congress has now resorted to using fake screenshots to claim that the popular song ‘Modi Hai To Mumkin’ released by T-Series has over 100K dislikes.

Fact: YouTube stopped displaying dislike counts back in 2021. Song has 1.7Mn views.pic.twitter.com/odd6aAUrkf

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) October 16, 2025

Fact Check

Has YouTube Stopped Showing Dislike Count?

In early 2021, YouTube experimented with the number of dislikes on videos to protect creators from harassment and targeted dislikes, which were particularly used against lesser-known creators.

In this experiment, YouTube found that when the number of dislikes was not visible, users were less likely to engage in aggressive ‘disliking’. While the ‘dislike’ button was visible and could be used, since the number of dislikes was not displayed, it was less likely for the video to be targeted by raising the number of dislikes.

Therefore, YouTube decided to officially hide dislike counts from viewers starting in November 2021 to create an inclusive and respectful environment, enabling creators to feel safe expressing themselves.

However, if creators want to see how a video is performing, they can see the exact number of dislikes on YouTube Studio. Viewers, too, can still dislike videos to make their recommendations more private and refined. The only change is that the number of dislikes is no longer visible on the video itself. Additionally, YouTube also removed access to public dislike data from developers using the YouTube Application Programming Interface (API) since December 13, 2021.

So, Are Screenshots of the Dislike Count Fake?

The answer is not as simple. Users who shared screenshots of dislike counts likely use a browser extension called Return YouTube Dislike (RYD), or third-party applications that use this API, or websites that display dislike data using this API. For example, in the video below, a browser extension displays the number of dislikes on a YouTube video. The difference before and after using the browser extension is clear in the video.

How does the Return YouTube Dislike (RYD) Tool Find the Number of Dislikes?

Interestingly, the number of dislikes displayed by this tool is not a real-time count, but estimated data derived based on the likes and dislikes of all users who use the Return YouTube Dislike (RYD) extension or third-party application. Based on this sample and the ‘likes’ on a video by all users, the tool arrives at an estimated value on the number of dislikes a video has.

How is This Estimated Data Calculated?

The estimated data of ‘dislikes’ is based on three kinds of specific and accurate data:

1. How many of those who use the RYD extension have ‘liked’ the video
2. How many of those who use the RYD extension have disliked or hit the thumbs down icon
3. The total number of likes the video has (not just those who have the RYD extension)

Based on these three data points, it arrives at an estimated dislike count. According to its FAQs on GitHub, here’s how that is done:

By going to the RYD API, data for the video ‘Modi Hai To Mumkin Hai’ can be found. Here, the number of likes by RYD extension users is 1,378 and dislikes by RYD extension users is 28,706. The total number of likes on the video is 51,001. Based on this, the number of estimated dislikes on this video stands at 4,37,286. To reiterate, this is estimated data calculated using a formula displayed on all platforms (Android, iOS, web browser extensions) using the Return YouTube Dislike (RYD) API and by other dislike counter online tools. However, such data can take a few minutes to a few hours to update.

So, Amit Malviya’s claim that people are sharing fake screenshots of the number of ‘dislikes’ on the ‘Modi Hai To Mumkin Hai’ video is not true. The screenshots are not fake. That said, however, his claim that YouTube stopped showing the dislike count is true. While YouTube has stopped showing the number of dislikes, several APIs and tools allow such estimations to be made, and the viral screenshots are based on calculations by one of these tools.

However, readers should note that data in the screenshots regarding the Modi song cannot be relied on completely to make assertions on its unpopularity because these are derived and not organic or provided by YouTube. It is estimated from a sample of those using a browser extension that tracks such dislikes and likes, making it susceptible to manipulation. 

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