Spam comments on YouTube have gotten worse recently and the platform has decided to retaliate.
Via a Twitter feed (opens in a new tab), YouTube revealed that it is working on three new tools to combat comment spam and bad actors posing as content creators. As it stands, the update includes removing the ability to hide your follower count, improving comment moderation, and changing the rules around special characters in a name.
YouTube says removing the ability to hide subscriber counts will make it more difficult to impersonate creators. The copycats have become so prominent that prominent YouTubers like Marques Brownlee have posted videos (opens in a new tab) showing the severity of the problem. In his video, he will see, in what is obviously a scam, spam comments with the Marques channel logo telling people to message him on Telegram for a prize. The number of subscribers changes version on July 29. It is not known if the other tools will also be released on this date. We asked YouTube if they could tell us when they would be released, but we didn't get an answer. We'll add an update if they respond.
For comment moderation, creators can enable "Increase Strictness" in their channel settings to place inappropriate comments, in up to 100 languages, in a new "Awaiting Review" tab. Comments in this tab must be manually approved by the channel before they can appear on the video. Channels have up to 60 days to review comments, according to a YouTube help page (opens in a new tab).
Regarding special characters, YouTube limits the number that can be placed in a channel name. Apparently, impersonators would get around YouTube's security by exchanging letters for a symbol. For example, instead of "TheComparison", you might see a copycat with "T€chR@d@r". However, spam accounts can be more subtle, such as swapping the letter "B" with "Ḃ". That little dot above the "B" can trick people into clicking a fraudulent link. We've also asked YouTube how many special characters will now be allowed in a name, but haven't heard back yet.
Analysis: Fight against spam
While these changes are fairly small, it's still good to see that YouTube is actively working on the spam issue. The platform said it was working to improve (opens in a new tab) its systems and tools to better detect spam, but did not detail what they are. Good luck YouTube, because like Hydra, you cut out one scam campaign and another one pops up.
The platform actively fought against comment spam in 2017. Back then, the platform introduced a new feature containing comments with URLs for review. But now they started putting URLs in channel names. And in 2021, Google crushed a massive phishing campaign targeting YouTubers.
If you're curious about what you can do to protect yourself, we recommend getting a VPN. TechRadar has a list of the best YouTube VPNs for 2022 to help you narrow down your decision.