YouTube disables hidden wide variety of subscribers

As part of a more important effort to combat the misrepresentation of creators on the platform, YouTube has stopped allowing channels to hide the number of subscribers they have.

Hiding the number of subscribers is one of the ways spammers manage to present themselves as other channels when they leave comments.

The low number of subscribers is unacceptable that someone posing as another creator is not the one they claim to be.

Many people on YouTube today are at the forefront of spam in comments and identity-related abuses.

In response, several updates are being introduced to help protect viewers and creators from intrusive comments, while making it harder to misrepresent creators.

Updates include:

• Disabling the hidden number of subscribers
• Strengthening the ability of automatic moderation
• Restrict the use of special characters in channel names

Here is more information about each of these updates.

Hidden number of subscribers

In the past, YouTube channels were able to hide the number of subscribers they have.

Some creators find this feature valuable, such as those who are starting out and don’t want to be judged by the number of subscribers.

However, it is often used to misrepresent channels, YouTube says.

Bad actors often lure people to their side of the channel by posing for other creators in the comments.

Following the update, which was introduced in late July, the channels will no longer be able to hide the number of subscribers on YouTube.

YouTube believes this decision will make the community safer, though it will certainly upset creators who haven’t abused their ability to hide subscribers.

Stricter moderation of comments

YouTube allows channels to automatically withhold comments for moderation before they are posted live for all to see.

Updating YouTube’s automatic moderation gives creators the ability to increase rigor.

If the moderation of comments becomes stricter, the detection settings for potentially inappropriate comments and spam will increase.

You can strictly zoom in by logging into Creator Studio and selecting “Settings.” Then select Community and then Default.

Check the box labeled “keep potentially inappropriate comments for review,” then select “increase rigor.”

When this new setting is turned on, more spam and bids will be automatically filtered under the “Suspended for review” tab.

From there, channels can delete a comment or make it public.

Restricting special characters

The use of special characters in channel names is one way bad actors mimic established channels.

To prevent phishing attempts, YouTube is reducing the number of character sets that creators can choose from when updating their name.

However, existing names with special characters may remain in place.

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Vir: Creator Insider
Selected image: rafapress / Shutterstock