Google-owned video streaming platform YouTube is planning to launch a new stricter moderations system after numerous content creators complain about ‘Spam comments’.
The new feature will let creators increase the strictness of potentially inappropriate or spam comments held for review.
Many big YouTubers including Linus Tech, Jacksepticeye, and MKBHD have expressed their frustration over the increasing problem of spam on their channels in the near past.
These high-profile creators often experience the problem as many commentators impersonate them in an attempt to scam their viewers.
Linus Sebastian in a video on February 1 said “YouTube has a problem. Spam, from crypto scams to health supplements to free Robux, it just keeps getting worse with each passing day.”
“YouTube needs to fix this” was the title of tech reviewer Brownlee’s April 1 video.
He added “YouTube comments spam has been next-level out of control for months.”
One form of spam that worries the creator most is when someone tries to impersonate them in the comment box, asking viewers to click on a link, and eventually scam them.
Other spam comments can be less overtly malicious but still annoying or potentially harmful.
Sean Jacksepticeye McLoughlin said on his YouTube channel on March 6 that people often share genuine-looking comments but with names like “T[A]P Me!! To Have [S]EX With Me”. (If you see a profile with that name, do not click or tap on it.)
The platform already has multiple ways to combat spam comments with the help of machine learning and human review. Over 950 million comments were removed by YouTube for violating our policies around spam, misleading and scams in the last quarter of 2021 alone.
YouTube spokesperson Ivy Choi said in a statement to The Verge that “The vast majority” of those removals were first detected by automated flagging systems.”
But these YouTube needs to come up with more effective ways to curb spam comment and it seem like that they know it. MKBHD posted Friday about a new experimental moderation feature that will “increase strictness” of potentially inappropriate comments that get automatically held for review.
YouTube spokesperson Mariana De Felice said that the company has been testing the feature since December 2021.
This “Increase strictness” content moderation tool is a new experiment from YouTube that’s been in the works for a bit. Hoping it can make a dent in this comment spam we’ve been seeing so much lately pic.twitter.com/KVkjVCOUKZ
— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) April 8, 2022
It sounds as if YouTube is watching the issue closely. “Given the evolving nature and shifting tactics of spammy content, we’ll continue to adapt our systems to stay current,” Choi said. And creators can also take comment spam into their own hands — both Sebastian and Brownlee mentioned the “YouTube Spammer Purge” tool made by YouTuber ThioJoe, which “allows you to filter and search for spammer comments on your channel and other’s channel(s) in many different ways AND delete/report them all at once,” according to the GitHub description.
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But for YouTube creators who are fielding many spammy comments right now, it’s not clear if there may be a reprieve anytime soon.
