With an increasing focus on addressing online harassment, top tech companies in the world are looking for ways to clean up their services from unwanted trolls.
One of the worst places to be on the internet if you are a creator is YouTube's comments section. From simply hating on your videos, comments become racist in a matter of seconds. The penchant for abuse and bullying on YouTube has just increased over the years with more creators joining the platform. Unlike Twiter, Google is trying to fix this before it goes out of hand.
Courtney Lessard, YouTube Product Manager recently told Wired that the online video platform is working to give creators more control over the comments section. This will help them shape the conversation on their videos. Video creators will now be able to pin comments that they like to the top of the feed, this would help focus on positive comments and hide trolls in the background. Creators will now also be able to show appreciation for a comment or feedback by marking them with a heart symbol which would be visible to everyone. Another change is in the way comments from creators are shows in the thread, now creators' comments will be highlighted with a bright color to make them stand apart allowing them to be easily distinguished.
YouTube already has built-in tools for blacklisting comments with specific words, blocking users and hold comments for review but with the new tools, creators will be able to make the comments section more productive. At present, there is no word as to when these changes will start rolling out and what their effect will be in the long run but at least taking online abuse seriously, even if they are a bit late.