New thumbs down; how does that work then?

So I see a small weird random change on Udio is the new thumbs down (is that all that’s changed?)

How does that work? Are downvotes publicly visible? Do they affect front page choices?

P.S. something on this sub, possibly the new ‘important’ box is making composing this post extremely painful using the iOS Reddit app. It keeps scrolling up as I type.