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YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

bbc.co.uk

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Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#41
post #20
post #9

Chris Ulmer, who runs the popular YouTube channel Special Books for Special Kids, said that comments were removed from his channel despite no evidence of unacceptable comments, and YouTube told him that if he turned comments back on, he risked his channel being deleted. [EDIT: Turns out, this is not actually the case. See child comments.] https://twitter.com/chrisulmer/status/1099366622329036801 "Last night I realize…

Looks like YT wrote back to that post to say that's not true? "...Channels will not get deleted if you re-enable comments--can you send us the post where you saw that?"

YT also ask for referns so they can correct the faulty information.

If i understand the twitter thread correctly, he referens that ads can decrease, and this somehow in his mind means that YT will delete his channel...

Edit: In my world, that is called a lie.

And well, who wants to advertize if the comments is full of pedophils?

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#42
post #12

The fact that Google is ceding the fight against toxic comments on YouTube is actually pretty shocking. In a company that knows more about you than you can possibly imagine, and more about automated sentiment analysis than anyone in the world, they couldn’t algorithmically determine who should be allowed to post on certain subsets of videos, or devise a system they thought was worth deploying to ensure comments meet…

I can't think of having ever seen a comment on YouTube that made the commenting feature seem worthwhile.

What? Is it 2006 again? I mostly watch photography videos and vines/weird videos, and the comments sections are often fun and sometimes informative.

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#43
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no law making creepy comments like these illegal, at least not in the US. (I can't speak for other countries, and US law is what's relevant here.)

That doesn't mean they can't or shouldn't be investigated.

I doubt a creepy comment is sufficient probable cause to open an investigation, barring other indicators.

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#44
post #16

To ban comments is an important step IMHO, but how about putting the people making the comments behind bars? They will keep watching these videos.

There's no law making creepy comments like these illegal, at least not in the US. (I can't speak for other countries, and US law is what's relevant here.)

Some of the comments would have been covered by https://definitions.uslegal.com/c/child-enticement/

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#45
post #12

The fact that Google is ceding the fight against toxic comments on YouTube is actually pretty shocking. In a company that knows more about you than you can possibly imagine, and more about automated sentiment analysis than anyone in the world, they couldn’t algorithmically determine who should be allowed to post on certain subsets of videos, or devise a system they thought was worth deploying to ensure comments meet…

My guess is they decided it would take them a little while to do it algorithmically and would thus lose even more advertisers, so they bit the bullet and disabled comments. I suspect they're working hard on a different solution.

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#46
post #12

The fact that Google is ceding the fight against toxic comments on YouTube is actually pretty shocking. In a company that knows more about you than you can possibly imagine, and more about automated sentiment analysis than anyone in the world, they couldn’t algorithmically determine who should be allowed to post on certain subsets of videos, or devise a system they thought was worth deploying to ensure comments meet…

It’s important to note they’re ceding a fight they never even seriously attempted to engage in where comments and content are concerned. As with all things Google and YT, if it can’t be badly automated, they’d rather kill it than set the precedent of doing anything useful. The short term result will be attention moving on. The long term is building up pressure that will probably result in major regulation. I wouldn’t be shocked if they’re digging a grave in the shape of “They’re too big to be responsible, so break them up.”

If your company has a platform that is beyond your capacity to manage responsibily, then your platform needs to shrink, or be chopped up.

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#47
post #12

The fact that Google is ceding the fight against toxic comments on YouTube is actually pretty shocking. In a company that knows more about you than you can possibly imagine, and more about automated sentiment analysis than anyone in the world, they couldn’t algorithmically determine who should be allowed to post on certain subsets of videos, or devise a system they thought was worth deploying to ensure comments meet…

Google probably could devise such an algorithm or system, but rather chose the cheapest solution that required the least amount of human intervention. That shouldn't surprise anyone, as their goal is maximizing ROI from ad revenue.

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#49
I don't know how to feel about this. The concept of "commenting on web page" is old, but with so much people connected to internet, do we really need a comment section on all pages ? From my point of view, comments are most of the time irrelevant, especially on Youtube. HN would be the exception.

Comments involves a lots of energy to moderate for no value most of the time. I know it's nice to have feedback when you create something and share it whit the world, but maybe we don't need a comment system to have user feedback !

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