Bizarre YouTube comment censorship

[usagora]

For a long while now, I've noticed that YouTube, seemingly at random, decides replies I post to other people comments in a video (not my video - just any video out there on YouTube with replies enabled) are objectionable and hides them from public view. However, these replies contain no profanity, no insults, no hyperlinks, etc. Here's an actual example of a reply I tried to make but YouTube refuses to post it publicly:

If I hear a gunshot, walk into a room, and see you holding a smoking gun and a guy with a bullet hole in his chest staggering backwards from you, it's technically an "assumption" to say you shot him, but a pretty obvious one. So let's not get carried away here with your faux lawyer complex, especially since we're talking about a traffic infraction, not murder.

So when I hit "reply" I see it posted, but if I log out and then go back to the comment thread, it's not there. Underneath the OP's comment, the drop-down link says "View 16 replies", however only 15 are visible (my hidden reply is the 16th).

So I figure maybe YouTube objects to words having to do with violence, so I delete the comment and try this one instead:

If I hear a g*nsh*t, walk into a room, and see you holding a smoking g*n and a guy with a b*llet hole in his chest staggering backwards from you, it's technically an "assumption" to say you sh*t him, but a pretty obvious one. So let's not get carried away here with your faux lawyer complex, especially since we're talking about a traffic infraction, not m*rder.

Nope, still not good enough. Not publicly viewable. I tried putting spaces instead of asterisks - still a no-go. And it's not just me. The other week, someone insisted they replied to me and it turned out his reply was hidden from public view. He was only seeing it because he was logged in with the account/channel he posted the comment with.

So what gives? I'm getting tired of constantly wondering if replies I type are actually seen by others. Anyone else experience this? Then again, you might not know it unless you log out and check, because you will still see every comment you make - it's just others that won't when this happens.

 

[chown33]

Maybe it's the word "smoking".

Personally, I'd try much smaller comments. Maybe something like "smoing gub", then "smoking gub", then "smoking fun", and "smoking gun".

I'd also try words like "pistol", "revolver", and "carbine". Also "bazooka" and "grenade".

Maybe even a Candlestick in the Billiard Room.

 

[Rafterman]

Probably the combination of words. Gun, bullet, shot, murder - all in one post may trigger filters.

 

[usagora]

Maybe it's the word "smoking".

Personally, I'd try much smaller comments. Maybe something like "smoing gub", then "smoking gub", then "smoking fun", and "smoking gun".

I'd also try words like "pistol", "revolver", and "carbine". Also "bazooka" and "grenade".

Maybe even a Candlestick in the Billiard Room.

How ridiculous that this is even an issue! I guess half the comments on videos about smoking (nicotine) must be censored then. I also don't consider that a long comment. I've seen people literally post novels on YouTube (you know, the people that think many words makes then appear smarter or makes them right), so I doubt it has to do with the character count.

Probably the combination of words. Gun, bullet, shot, murder - all in one post may trigger filters.

Except even if I self-censor those words, the comment still won't post.

And by the way, I see people post f bombs and other profanity in YouTube comments all the time, so I guess YouTube is ok with that but not naughty words like "gun" ?

It would be nice if YouTube gave users a warning that their comment was not acceptable and what they could do to correct it instead of letting them believe their comments are being posted but are actually being hidden.

 

[Rafterman]

How ridiculous that this is even an issue! I guess half the comments on videos about smoking (nicotine) must be censored then. I also don't consider that a long comment. I've seen people literally post novels on YouTube (you know, the people that think many words makes then appear smarter or makes them right), so I doubt it has to do with the character count.



Except even if I self-censor those words, the comment still won't post.

And by the way, I see people post f bombs and other profanity in YouTube comments all the time, so I guess YouTube is ok with that but not naughty words like "gun" ?

It would be nice if YouTube gave users a warning that their comment was not acceptable and what they could do to correct it instead of letting them believe their comments are being posted but are actually being hidden.

Some filters anticipate more obvious "self censoring" tricks like g*n or sh0t. But not guuuun or sh00t.

 

[chown33]

... I also don't consider that a long comment. I've seen people literally post novels on YouTube (you know, the people that think many words makes then appear smarter or makes them right), so I doubt it has to do with the character count.

My suggestion to try shorter comments wasn't because I was questioning whether the comment exceeded a length limit. It was purely a debugging tactic.

You're basically trying to find out what words lead to the comment being suppressed. The more words you have in the text, the more combinations you have to try. That's just basic math.

On the other hand, if you try the 4 examples I gave, and learn that the ones with "smoking" work and only the one with "gun" fails, then you've learned one word that triggers the problem. However, if only "smoking fun" works, then I'd probably conclude that misspellings of forbidden words are also forbidden.

Until you know exactly what triggers the problem, you should think about doing small focused tests to discover what works and what doesn't, rather than as an attempt to post your original comment.

 

[usagora]

My suggestion to try shorter comments wasn't because I was questioning whether the comment exceeded a length limit. It was purely a debugging tactic.

You're basically trying to find out what words lead to the comment being suppressed. The more words you have in the text, the more combinations you have to try. That's just basic math.

On the other hand, if you try the 4 examples I gave, and learn that the ones with "smoking" work and only the one with "gun" fails, then you've learned one word that triggers the problem. However, if only "smoking fun" works, then I'd probably conclude that misspellings of forbidden words are also forbidden.

Until you know exactly what triggers the problem, you should think about doing small focused tests to discover what works and what doesn't, rather than as an attempt to post your original comment.

I get it, but it's very time-consuming, because you have to delete the previous comment, post the "test" one, switch to another account, search for the OP again, then expand the comments to see if your test comment made it through the draconian censor. If it didn't, then you have to switch back to your other account, search for the OP again, delete your comment, try another test comment, then repeat the process again. Then even if it DOES pass the censor, then you have to test it all over again when you start adding to your comment to be sure yet another word doesn't trigger the censor. It's honestly ridiculous, especially since it doesn't even seem consistent. For example, I've had comments that included the word "******" censored, yet like I mentioned before I see other people's comments with uncensored profanity in them!

EDIT: Gee, even this site censors the censored version, but at least it doesn't hide my entire post from public view. The astersiks above was the word "eloh-a" backwards, btw.

 

[dannyyankou]

Is it possible they have manual review turned on for the comments of that video?

 

[usagora]

Is it possible they have manual review turned on for the comments of that video?

No, because other comments I can post just fine right away (there's no "holding period" for manual review).

 

[chown33]

I'd probably keep two separate macOS user accounts logged in, then flip back and forth between them. In each account, open a browser and login to YT with different YT accounts.

Switch quickly between users on Mac

If your Mac has multiple users, turn on fast user switching to quickly switch between accounts.

support.apple.com

The goal is to eliminate the logout/login/logout/login cycles.

Another possibility is if you have a 2nd browser available. Use that with one YT account, and your primary browser with the other.

If you don't have another macOS account, it's easy to create one. Don't set it up with an AppleID or anything else, just make it a local non-admin account. You can delete it when you're done testing with it, if you're concerned about the disk space it uses.

 

[usagora]

I'd probably keep two separate macOS user accounts logged in, then flip back and forth between them. In each account, open a browser and login to YT with different YT accounts.

Switch quickly between users on Mac

If your Mac has multiple users, turn on fast user switching to quickly switch between accounts.

support.apple.com

The goal is to eliminate the logout/login/logout/login cycles.

Another possibility is if you have a 2nd browser available. Use that with one YT account, and your primary browser with the other.

If you don't have another macOS account, it's easy to create one. Don't set it up with an AppleID or anything else, just make it a local non-admin account. You can delete it when you're done testing with it, if you're concerned about the disk space it uses.

Yes, or I could just use 2 computers (I often have 2 nearby) but it's still time consuming and annoying because perfectly legitimate comments are being censored unless I play this silly guessing game to make them "acceptable" to these apparently very complex and inconsistent YouTube filters. And I guarantee you a ton of other people also making legitimate comments who will never know their comment is invisible because it shows up for them when they're logged in. And there's obviously something buggy with the system, because it wouldn't make sense for YouTube to not allow me to use a word in a comment that other people are able to use.

 

[chown33]

Welcome to debugging. "Time consuming and annoying" is an unavoidable part of it.

There have been times I've spent hours debugging something, only to find it was one tiny mistake, in something unrelated to where the problem was manifested.

As I see it, you'll have to decide how to spend time on YT. You could spend it being frustrated for no apparent reason, or you could spend it trying to discover something useful. The only alternatives I can think of are to accept it as-is, avoiding a plethora of possible trigger words (maybe even including the word "trigger"), or to simply make fewer YT comments.

 

[usagora]

Welcome to debugging. "Time consuming and annoying" is an unavoidable part of it.

There have been times I've spent hours debugging something, only to find it was one tiny mistake, in something unrelated to where the problem was manifested.

Except it's not my responsibility to debug YouTube for them. I have quite an involved web app that I created for managing a class that I teach, so I am very familiar with debugging, but that's understood since it's my code. If YouTube is going to censor non-obvious words, then they need to publish this list or warn users (or just mask the words like this site and many others do) instead of hiding comments without letting the user know. That's really bad design.

As I see it, you'll have to decide how to spend time on YT. You could spend it being frustrated for no apparent reason, or you could spend it trying to discover something useful. The only alternatives I can think of are to accept it as-is, avoiding a plethora of possible trigger words (maybe even including the word "trigger"), or to simply make fewer YT comments.

That's a bit preachy and condescending, don't you think? I'm conversing with people there just like both you and I do here. Frustrated for no apparent reason? Is the reason not obvious? Would you not be frustrated if you discovered that many of your comments on MR were never actually posted because some non-obvious word triggered a buggy filter and made the entire comment invisible except to you? And then how'd you feel if you were told, "Just accept it or don't make as many comments, or maybe reevaluate how you're spending time here." ?

Btw, I did post about this on the YouTube help forums back in March, but never received a single reply, even after bumping the thread 2 weeks later.

 

[chown33]

Except it's not my responsibility to debug YouTube for them. I have quite an involved web app that I created for managing a class that I teach, so I am very familiar with debugging, but that's understood since it's my code. If YouTube is going to censor non-obvious words, then they need to publish this list or warn users (or just mask the words like this site and many others do) instead of hiding comments without letting the user know. That's really bad design.

As much as I might agree about the bad design, I don't see anyone here on MR that can do anything about it. To me, that limits the value of any practical discussion here to what might be achievable with work-arounds.

If the goal is to work around some shortcomings, I find it helps to know their exact scope. Without that, it seems like the same guessing game you're in right now, where you don't know which "non-obvious word triggered a buggy filter and made the entire comment invisible".

The alternatives I see for working around this are:
- make guesses at the problematic words
- systematically determine the problematic words

Maybe I've missed an option for a practical work-around.

That's a bit preachy and condescending, don't you think? I'm conversing with people there just like both you and I do here. Frustrated for no apparent reason? Is the reason not obvious? Would you not be frustrated if you discovered that many of your comments on MR were never actually posted because some non-obvious word triggered a buggy filter and made the entire comment invisible except to you? And then how'd you feel if you were told, "Just accept it or don't make as many comments, or maybe reevaluate how you're spending time here." ?

Btw, I did post about this on the YouTube help forums back in March, but never received a single reply, even after bumping the thread 2 weeks later.

I apologize if that came across as preachy or condescending. I was just trying to make a realistic list of possible options. I find that seeing my options written out helps me consider them, and sometimes helps point me towards other practical options.

 

[usagora]

@chown33 This is more of a ranting thread than anything else. I wasn't expecting anyone here to know the solution, but was curious if anyone else here has noticed this. And if you haven't, be aware that it's probably happening to you too and you don't realize it because you never log out to check if your comments/replies are public.

 

[millerj123]

Probably the combination of words. Gun, bullet, shot, murder - all in one post may trigger filters.

Yeah, I'd reconsider the content if my posts and/or access was being removed regularly.

 

[usagora]

Yeah, I'd reconsider the content if my posts and/or access was being removed regularly.

But surely you can see there is absolutely nothing objectionable about my comment in context. It's ridiculous that the filter is so extreme that we can't even have an adult conversation including words like that. What it were a video about a homicide case? So no one can discuss it without using code words for gun, killing, shooting, murder, etc? That's absurd. And really the part that's most frustrating isn't that perfectly innocent words are being censored, but that it's done in a way that the user is unaware of and thinks their comment is posted when it's not. While it would still be stupid, it would be 10x better if they'd just post the comment publicly and just replace the "objectionable" words with asterisks. Then at least you'd know right away which words are the issue and could edit the comment to reword it if so desired.

 

[millerj123]

But surely you can see there is absolutely nothing objectionable about my comment in context. It's ridiculous that the filter is so extreme that we can't even have an adult conversation including words like that. What it were a video about a homicide case? So no one can discuss it without using code words for gun, killing, shooting, murder, etc? That's absurd. And really the part that's most frustrating isn't that perfectly innocent words are being censored, but that it's done in a way that the user is unaware of and thinks their comment is posted when it's not. While it would still be stupid, it would be 10x better if they'd just post the comment publicly and just replace the "objectionable" words with asterisks. Then at least you'd know right away which words are the issue and could edit the comment to reword it if so desired.

Ok then.

 

[usagora]

Ok then.

Not sure how to take that without further context. Are you implying that what I said doesn't make sense or something? Seems quite clear to me.

 

[millerj123]

Not sure how to take that without further context. Are you implying that what I said doesn't make sense or something? Seems quite clear to me.

Don’t care. You’ve posted twice recently about access. I suggest there might be correlation. Do with that as you see fit.

 

[SenorWhyMe]

I slowly am quitting google related things, literally I quit using, Google site, gmail, docs. The last thing for me to quit is Youtube and lucky enough I got 90% of the people I subscribe, to finally go to rumble, odysee. so slowly I am quitting YouTube I think in 2 years I will finally get away from google fully

 

[usagora]

Don’t care. You’ve posted twice recently about access. I suggest there might be correlation. Do with that as you see fit.

I have no idea what you're talking about. You must have me mixed up with another member here. But I guess if you don't care, then just move on.

 

[icanhazmac]

Yeah, I'd reconsider the content if my posts and/or access was being removed regularly.

Sound advice.

So what gives? I'm getting tired of constantly wondering if replies I type are actually seen by others. Anyone else experience this?

Can't really help you with this as I never use YouTube outside of Brave and never logged into an account but moderation in general at the scale of YouTube has to be a nightmare and they probably paint with a very wide brush. I think the best advice here comes from @Rafterman and @chown33 , it is probably the combination of multiple "trigger" words in the same post.

 

[usagora]

Sound advice.

Except as you can see from my verbatim example, the comment is not offensive/objectionable in the least to any rational person. The other user was just being snarky or didn't read my OP.

Can't really help you with this as I never use YouTube outside of Brave and never logged into an account but moderation in general at the scale of YouTube has to be a nightmare and they probably paint with a very wide brush. I think the best advice here comes from @Rafterman and @chown33 , it is probably the combination of multiple "trigger" words in the same post.

Literally ALL they have to do to improve this is simply notify the user that the comment is flagged and give them a chance to edit it instead of deceiving the user into thinking it's publicly viewable.

 

[phrehdd]

Except as you can see from my verbatim example, the comment is not offensive/objectionable in the least to any rational person. The other user was just being snarky or didn't read my OP.



Literally ALL they have to do to improve this is simply notify the user that the comment is flagged and give them a chance to edit it instead of deceiving the user into thinking it's publicly viewable.

Facebook, Youtube...heck even this site has 'interesting' censoring. I don't know which is worse - the automated or some individual on any given day in any given mood deciding something is unacceptable and thus engages censoring from a position of authority. It isn't going to be perfect and I have seen things that were censored that were truly harmless with no keywords but someone likely reported it if they disagreed with the content.