YouTube gets new tools to fight comment spam and abuse


YouTube has added new measures to combat spam in both the chat and comment sections. Earlier, YouTube began rolling out its own custom gaming emotes.

Updates on Comment Spam & Abuse

The company stated that it had received feedback indicating that comment spam and abuse is a top concern for content creators, so it wanted to highlight some of the things it has been working on to enhance the comment experience for everyone:

Improved Spam Detection on comments: In the blog post, it said that it has been working to improve its automated spam detection systems and machine learning models. In fact, in the first half of 2022, they got rid of more than 1.1 billion spam comments.

As spammers change how they do things, machine learning models keep getting better, so they can find the new kinds of spam better.

Improved bot detection in live chat: Google enhanced its spambot detection to prevent bots from entering live chats. Google explains further that it is aware that bots significantly harm the live-streaming experience, since the live chat is an excellent opportunity to interact with other users and artists.

Comment removal warnings & timeouts: Google says it will warn users when their comments are removed for breaking community guidelines. If a person repeatedly leaves offensive remarks, they may be blocked for 24 hours. It also states that testing shows these warnings and timeouts reduce repeat offenders.

Furthermore, YouTube has added time estimates for videos processed on the platform. According to the company, once a video is uploaded, creators will be able to know how long it will take for it to finish processing.

YouTube will actually show creators approximately how long it will take to process a video in standard definition, high definition, or 4K resolution.

Availability

At the moment, this message will only show up in English comments, but Google hopes to make it available in other languages in the coming months.

Announcing the new updates, Rob, TeamYouTube, said:

Reducing spam and abuse in comments and live chat is an ongoing task, so these updates will be ongoing as we continue to adapt to new trends. Please feel free to leave feedback and ask any questions you may have about these new features, we’re here to help!