YouTube announced a number of new improvements after being called out by big creators regarding spam comments and bots that may bring risks to their subscribers, like fake giveaways and crypto scams.
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(Photo : LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP via Getty Images) A picture taken on October 5, 2021 in Toulouse shows the logo of Youtube social media displayed by a screen and its website displayed by tablet.
YouTube Improves Spam Warnings and Bot Detections
In a blog post from YouTube Help, the company announced several improvements as feedback for creators' concerns regarding comment spam and bots abuse.
These include 'Improved Spam Detection on Comments' which removes over a billion spam comments in the first half of 2022. "As spammers change their tactics, our machine learning models are continuously improving to better detect the new types of spam," as per the statement.
YouTube also improved its bot detection in live chat to avoid accessing and interrupting the live streams of creators. The company stated that they know how bots bring negative impacts not only to the creators but also to their subscribers. This is a good enough reason for them to enhance the live streaming experience by banning bots on live.
Lastly, YouTube launched a new feature that warns users when a comment has been detected violating the Community Guidelines, which may also lead to blocking a certain user from posting and commenting further for up to 24 hours if the abusive comments continue after the warning.
The statement added, "Our testing has shown that these warnings/timeouts reduce the likelihood of users leaving violative comments again."
BGR reported the notification is only available for English comments temporarily, but the company aims to bring more languages in the following months, especially since YouTube's goal is to protect both its creators and users from the negative impacts that were being brought to the comments.
Calling Out YouTube
Several creators have made videos this year regarding comment spam on their channels. As per The Verge, creators like Linus Tech Tips, Jacksepticeye, and Marques Brownlee were frustrated about this problem.
Brownlee stated that "the comment section is one of the only places that you can facilitate real conversations between the creators and the audience."
He then suggested that while there is a multi-platform where users can purge and mass report these comments with filters, and no matter how these tools can be so good to solve this problem, nothing compares to the effectiveness of YouTube fixing the problem.
Now that YouTube released several updates regarding this matter, the company aims to offer more transparency to users. As per YouTube, their systems are not perfect, and feedback is much appreciated to help them know what to improve on their system.
This will also not be the final update for spam and bot detections, as it is an ongoing task for the team. Expect more updates soon since the company will adapt to new and future trends.
