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There are several annoyances to deal with while being a YouTuber, and spam comments are one of the biggest ones. Because of this, YouTube is looking to make comment moderation even more strict. According to The Verge, there is a new “increase strictness” option for YouTube content creators to pick when managing their settings.
This is something that YouTubers have been wanting for years now. It’s great getting comments on videos; even negative ones. Many people would rather have someone comment “This video sucks!” than get a random spam comment. These comments include impersonating the creator, shilling cryptocurrency, promoting adult cam sites, and selling products. They clog up the comment section and discourage engagement. And, it only gets worse for bigger YouTubers.
Luckily, YouTube is adding a tool for stricter comment moderation
Speaking of big YouTubers, Marques Brownlee (via Android Police) tweeted out about what YouTube is planning on doing. He posted a screenshot showing some of his comment and rating settings. We see a subsection under the “Hold potentially inappropriate comments for review” setting that reads “Increase strictness”.
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
YouTube already blocks spam comments behind the scenes. While that’s true, it’s clear that this problem is bigger than the company can handle. This increase strictness setting might shrink the filter keeping the spam comments out and blocking out more comments.
It might be a while before we see the full results
If you look at the screenshot, you’ll see the word “experimental” next to the new setting. This means that this feature is still in the testing stage at the moment. We don’t know just how effective it will be while this feature is still in such an early stage.
As time goes on, we hope to see fewer spam comments in the comment sections. As spammers come up with more ways to bypass the security measures, video-sharing and social media platforms need to evolve in order to maintain spam-free environments.