YouTube Offers Troll Buster Tool, Makes Comment Section Policing Easier

YouTube is providing its content creators with new tools to combat trolls littering the comment sections of its videos with inappropriate, abusive, racist, and offensive posts. The new algorithm dives deeper into certain sentence constructions instead of focusing simply on offensive words. This will then allow YouTubers to have more control over what comments appear under their videos.

The popular video hosting and streaming site actually already has certain systems in place designed to prevent potentially offensive content, Digital Trend reports. However, its scope is too broad to have a significant effect, particularly since it applies a blanket on abusive slurs regardless of context.

This time, the new algorithm will apply a more stringent screening procedure. It compares the comments that were removed in the past to the ones that the content creators themselves report as abusive, determining exactly what makes them worthy of the report. The full details of the new tools are included in a blog post by YouTube.

“We recognize that the algorithms will not always be accurate: The beta feature may hold some comments you deem fine for approval, or may not catch comments you’d like to hold and review,” the post reads. “When you review comments, the system will take that feedback into account and get better at identifying the types of comments to hold for review.”

The update does more than regulate the comment section to prevent the trolls from swarming YouTube videos. Now, content creators can actually pin comments that they approve of so that they can be at the top of the page, Tech Crunch notes.

Doing so essentially rewards those who contribute positive comments to discussions, though, this isn’t a guarantee. What is guaranteed is that trolls will now have to contend with yet another way for their foulness to be censored, and it’s only a matter of time before some of them cry foul.