YouTube has begun testing new pop-up reminders in order to try and curb the number of toxic comments on the platform. As reported by 9to5 the new pop-ups aim to decipher potential abusive comments and remind users of their dangerous potential.
YouTube has been working on lots of new features for its Music platform. This follows the migration over from Google Play Music meaning the company has a desire to please its new users.
These have included a new set of home feed filter suggestions to help users find relevant videos. The platform has also begun introducing personalized playlists now available through Google Assistant.
This new innovation, however, focusses on the social element of the platform. Any attempt to curb the abusive and toxic comments that many creators face regularly on the platform.
YouTube introduces pop-up reminders to try and curb toxic comments
Optimists will hope that this will have a large impact on the nature of the comments below videos. However, it is fairly obvious that this small addition will not end all hateful comments but any small help in this vain will be welcome.
The idea behind the reminders is to notify users when they are about to post something potentially hurtful. This should then give them some time to reflect on what they have written. Hopefully, this should result in some comments being altered or deleted all together before they are even posted.
YouTube was quick to stress that even if your comment does not trigger a pop-up reminder it could still get removed for breaching community guidelines. This demonstrates that, at least in its current form, is not full proof and will miss some toxic posts.
Little is known about the nature and length of the test YouTube is currently conducting with this feature. As yet we have not seen this feature for any users suggesting it may be fairly limited.
Ultimately, it is positive to see YouTube taking some action when it comes to toxic and abusive posting. However, we would be kidding ourselves if we saw this as the solution to the problem.
It may have a small impact on types of things people post on the platform but at the very least it gets them thinking about what they are posting. Hopefully, this test is successful and YouTube rolls out a useful feature to the wider community which will make a difference to the material posted.