YouTube is taking some important steps to limit the harassment that many content creators face

Harassment through hate comments and personal attacks via comments and messages are a part of social media, and influencers, content creators, even celebrities are quite habitual of facing these types of unpleasant situations sometimes.

However, LGBTQ+ Community activist, transgender author, and content creator Jackson Bird has recently told in an interview with Ariel Bardin, the VP of creator products at YouTube, that despite him loving the work he does and the videos he creates for his community, he still feels threatened by a large number of hateful comments and personal attacks by haters.

He acknowledges that YouTube’s comment hunting algorithms and a strict policy against abuse often helps, but even that does not control when the attacks get personal and threaten the privacy and safety of the community as well as of himself.

He is not alone who probably goes through this torment and psychological trauma. Other video creators also become a target more often than we would like to think.

To combat this situation, YouTube recently rolled out a feature which is called ‘Held for review.’ Any comments posted under a video are held for a manual review from the video uploader/creator. All comments, especially the ones that are flagged by YouTube are brought to the creator’s notice and they can decide whether they want to get them posted or get them removed before they reach the public.

Apart from this, YouTube is also thinking about introducing a feature through which creators will be able to self-limit the reach of their videos to avoid harassment.

Jackson Bird said that it is the main aim of every creator that their videos reach the masses and gain maximum views, likes, and popularity. However, sometimes due to the fear of hate comments and attacks, creators unwantedly feel like limiting the reach of their videos and keep them contained within the specific community that they are meant for.

So, with this potential feature, after restricting a video, the creator can make it visible to the channel’s subscribers only, and this video will also not be recommended on Up Next panels and in YouTube’s trending tabs. This is probably going to help the creators from getting unwarranted and targeted demonetization of their videos also.

Aside from this, YouTube is working around a pre-upload video review service for content creators, called ‘Unlisted Video Review.’ This feature is currently in testing, and it is meant to allow the creators to send in their videos before uploading on their channel, to a platform consisting of very senior and expert reviewers. They will watch the videos and review them, and let the creator know whether there are any policy violations or not?

They will also tell the creator, if the videos have any potential to get hateful and abusive comments from the viewers or if they are safe to be uploaded?

This feature will also make it certain whether these videos will be monetized or not?

These features and YouTube’s efforts to control cyber harassment as much as possible are truly commendable.



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