YouTubers demand platform take action against “disgusting” comment bots

Prominent YouTubers are speaking out against comment bots on the platform for spreading “awful” remarks and including links to shady Discord servers in their channels.

The comments themselves are, unfortunately, nothing new. If you’ve been perusing the comments section underneath a popular creator’s videos anytime recently, you’ve probably seen one of these bots, which spam anything from racial slurs to bragging about abusing animals — and those are the tame ones.

Over the last month or so, an influx of bots have inundated YouTube that advertise Discord links in their channel descriptions that supposedly navigate to illegal material.

Two popular YouTubers, SomeOrdinaryGamers and MoistCritikal, spoke out against these bots, urging YouTube to fix the issue.

“That is illegal,” Moist said in a video uploaded on July 9, 2024. “They are promoting illegal content through YouTube. That is so f*cking disgusting, and the fact that these accounts are able to do that without YouTube having some kind of automatic to shut it down is shocking.”

“This is activity that needs to be stamped out faster than ever,” Mutahar of SomeOrdinaryGamers said. “With illicit content now shared openly, not only does YouTube need to be involved but so does the law.”

Both YouTubers also addressed concerns from viewers that creators aren’t doing enough to moderate their comment sections, arguing that it’s impossible for them to moderate every single comment that’s posted on their videos with the tools they’re given.

“I don’t know what you want people to do,” Mutahar said. “Do you want us to upload a video and start looking through every single comment and moderating it? I use about as much of the YouTube auto moderation tools as I can. I have no time out of my day, and no other creator that I know has enough time in their day to auto-moderate their comments sections.”

MoistCritikal had a similar sentiment. “Of course I care,” he said. “No one likes to see their comments section in this kind of state, especially when it’s promoting awful, awful things. Nobody wants that.

“I use all of the automated tools YouTube offers to try and put the kibosh on this garbage here. Most YouTubers do. But sometimes, it’s just not enough, because it’s so easy to make a ton of bots.”

This far, YouTube has not offered an official reply to these concerns, leaving both creators and viewers demanding answers.