It’s where free speech, community interests, censorship, harassment, spam, and overt criminality all butt up against each other. Moderating content and comments is one of the most vital responsibilities on the internet. Only a small number of channels featuring minors would be able to stay monetized - as long as they “actively moderate their comments.” The decision, made by a company that has long stressed the importance of algorithms, seems a tacit acknowledgement that human moderation is currently the best solution for policing harmful content. Awash in criticism over the discovery of a network of child predators using the platform’s comment sections to share timestamps and screenshots of underage users from implicitly sexual angles, the company disabled comments on almost all videos featuring minors. Last week, YouTube did something unprecedented.
