YouTube: How many comments were removed in three months

For the first time ever, YouTube has revealed how many comments it’s been forced to remove.

The video sharing site says it took down over 224 million comments between July and September this year.

YouTube says that only represents a small fraction of the billions of comments that were posted during that period.

Most of the removed comments were taken down because they were considered spam.

This comes only a year after a glitch meant that sexualised comments were left on hundreds of children’s videos.

“We will be unwavering in our fight against bad actors on our platform and our efforts to remove egregious content before it is viewed,” YouTube said in a statement.

“We know there is more work to do and we are continuing to invest in people and technology to remove violative content quickly. We look forward to providing you with more updates.”

Despite removing the comments, YouTube claims that the amount of people leaving their opinions has actually risen – daily users are 11% more likely to leave a comment than they were in 2017.

It’s a similar story for the actual videos too. During that same period, some 7.8 million videos were removed by YouTube, with almost 75% of them never receiving a single view.

But last week, the site was forced to delete thousands of clips that promoted academic cheating – seven months after a BBC investigation revealed the widespread extent of the problem.

Of the 7.8 million videos, YouTube says that the majority were attempts to host spam or adult content on the platform.

Videos that featured violent extremism or risked child safety were also considered to be “low-volume” and over 90% of these boasted less than 10 views.

Despite the crackdown, YouTube maintain that they’re still committed to providing a home for original and innovative content creators.

“We are committed to making sure that YouTube remains a vibrant community, where creativity flourishes, independent creators make their living, and people connect worldwide over shared passions and interests,” the site said.

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