Toxic YouTube comments might improve, thanks to new pop-up reminders

Damien Wilde | Oct 7 2020 - 5:19 am PT

The bane of any YouTube channel is undoubtedly the sheer volume of inane and toxic comments you’ll receive, no matter your channel size or reach.

A new experiment may help curb toxic comments and unneeded abuse. YouTube is testing a new reminder pop-up that can contextually decipher potentially abusive comments and suggest that it might be a little flagrant — giving the author a short time to reflect on what they are about to post.

While the optimist inside all of us would hope this does eventually roll out widely across YouTube, we’re sure that it won’t end hateful and harmful comments on the platform overnight. Of course, the YouTube Community Guidelines can provide some protection from negative and unnecessary content and comments that do violate terms.

[October 6 2020] Testing a new reminder in comments to help encourage respectful interactions: To help encourage more respectful interactions on YouTube, we’re testing out a reminder that pops up before you post a potentially offensive comment, giving you a moment to reflect on your comment and revise your reply/comment before it’s published. From the reminder, you can move forward with posting your comment as is, or take a few extra moments to edit your comment before posting it.
Note: Even if a comment doesn’t trigger the reminder (as it won’t catch all potentially offensive comments) it may still be removed due to Community Guidelines violations. Only those randomly selected to participate in the experiment will see the reminder. We’ll continue to adjust if and how the reminder is shown pending experiment results.

We’ve not yet seen the option on any of our own devices, but should you see the pop-up when typing a YouTube comment on mobile or desktop, be sure to let us know down in the comments section below.