YouTube has taken decisive action to combat “any content — including comments — that endangers minors,” according to The Washington Post.
YouTube said it has deleted hundreds of channels and millions of comments for objectionable content. A YouTube spokesperson informed The Verge that the firm “took immediate action by deleting accounts and channels, reporting illegal activity to authorities, and disabling violative comments.”
The spokesperson stressed the company’s opposition to abhorrent content and added that it has “clear policies prohibiting this on YouTube.” The spokesperson continued, “There’s more to be done, and we continue to work to improve and catch abuse more quickly.”
Creators like culture/politics commentator Philip DeFranco weighed in on the controversy.
YouTube enshrined community guidelines to specifically address child abusive behavior on videos in 2017 and advertisers have gained more control over where their commercials are featured. DeFranco gave the nuanced take that this isn’t an exclusively YouTube community related problem so much as an issue across the internet as a whole.
He tweeted about how YouTube “Disabled comments on tens of millions of videos. Terminated over 400 channels. Reported illegal comments to law enforcement.”
In his video update he delved further into the topic and commended the firm for its efforts, “Once they were made aware of the offending content, they handled the situation,” DeFranco noted. “Which, again, is why it’s important that instead of saying, ‘YouTube allows this and they’re happy about it’ — because once again that is an insane argument — the best thing we can do is report disgusting monsters like we would anywhere else on the internet.”
YouTube directly stated that its policy is a no-holds-barred approach “even if your video is suitable for advertisers, inappropriate comments could result in your video receiving limited or no ads.” Many Twitter users, especially content creators, found it dangerous and that bad faith actors or trolls could financially cripple them by leaving vile comments on their videos.
Twitter user TheReconJacob asked “Do you not see how users could abuse that against YouTuber's they don't like?” Free Speech YouTuber and former VICE writer Tim Pool responded similarly by tweeting his prediction “OK, looks like we will all be disabling comments across YouTube.”
Chinese tech YouTuber Naomi Wu tweeted her take on the issue, “So...comments on my videos might get disabled because shitty people leave thousands of rape/mutilation/stalking/death threats and it sometimes takes a while for me to moderate them all? Why would all comments on videos get disabled rather than the commentors account?”
