How to report spam comments on YouTube videos
What's the story
YouTube has simplified the process for users to report spam comments, helping maintain a clean and engaging community.
The platform offers an easy-to-use "Report" or "Report as spam or abuse" feature, giving users the tools to control unwanted content.
Here's a quick guide on how you can use these features to keep your YouTube experience spam-free.
Reporting procedure
User-friendly process to report spam comments
In the comments section of a YouTube video, find the comment you want to report.
Now, select "Report" from the three-dot menu, and then choose "Unwanted commercial content or spam" > Report.
Creators, too, can report spam while reviewing comments in YouTube Studio, giving them even more control over the content on the platform.
Review process
Guidelines for reviewing spam comments
To review comments flagged as spam, users will have to sign in to YouTube Studio and click on "Comments" from the left menu.
From there, they will have to select the "Held" tab where any comments reported as spam on their content will show up at the bottom.
They will also be labeled as "Likely spam," making it pretty clear for users during the review process.
Spam identification
YouTube's definition and detection of spam
YouTube defines spam as content or correspondences that create a negative experience by making it difficult to find more relevant and substantive material.
Sometimes, it can even be used to send unsolicited bulk messages on the platform.
The detection of spam is based on the text of a comment, or by the behavior from a particular commenter, such as repeatedly posting comments.
Spam protocol
Protocol when a comment is reported as spam
When a comment is reported as spam, it could be held in the Comments section of YouTube Studio for 60 days.
However, once a user has marked a comment as spam, there's no way to undo it.
To prevent someone from spamming their comments, users can hide that person from their channel by signing into YouTube and selecting "Hide user from channel" next to the offending comment.