YouTube creators struggling with spam and comment impersonation can finally get some help fighting these issues.
On Thursday the official YouTube Creators Twitter account tweeted a thread announcing that the popular video-sharing platform would release a series of updates to help creators defend themselves against spam comments and the attempts of others to impersonate their channels†
1/ we know how important it is to protect you and your community from malicious parties. That’s why we’re launching https://t.co/hfqgqfRIzJ to fight identity abuse related spam starting in the comments section. read more below ️
— YouTube Creators (@YouTubeCreators) June 30, 2022
The tweet thread above is also linked to: an official statement about this from TeamYouTube (via the YouTube help guide). In this statement, TeamYouTube provides more details about the changes YouTube is making to combat spam comments and the issue of impersonation. Three major changes are to be expected:
- A new comment moderation setting is now available. Creators have access to an optional setting called Increase the severity† Creators can enable it to increase the number “possibly inappropriate” or spam comments that are kept for review by the creators.
- YouTube channels can no longer hide the subscriber count. From July 29, broadcasters are no longer allowed to hide their subscriber numbers. YouTube says its previous subscriber-hiding capability was abused by “bad actors” who “hide their channels’ subscriber counts to mimic bigger, more prominent channels on YouTube — impersonating other creators in comments and luring people.” then to their imitation channel page.”
- New restrictions on the use of special characters in channel names. YouTube also puts limits on the character set available to users when they select a name for their channels, as “some characters can be used to mimic channels”.
You have access to the new Increase the severity set now. In a desktop browser, do the following:
Step 1: Go to YouTube studio and select Settings†
Step 2: Select Community and then choose the Standard settings tab.
Step 3: below Hold potentially inappropriate comments for review (you may need to select that option first if it isn’t already), check the box next to Increase the severity†
Step 4: Then choose Save†
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