- YouTube fixed a recent bug that prevented non-English comments from being delivered in live chats.
- Several users began to voice complaints on YouTube’s help platform.
- It’s unclear what caused the error, but it may have been a caching or AI moderation error.
YouTube has undergone numerous changes over the years, with content creators frequently expressing frustrations regarding moderation and monetization, and the platform’s latest issue summarizes these concerns.
Several users noticed a strange bug in YouTube’s live chats, which only allowed emojis or non-English text to be sent and delivered, and it was later fixed, as YouTube noted on its support page. This applied to both standard and super chat messages, temporarily breaking live chat functionality.
I discovered this while chatting on a live stream and found that only inconsistent text (or text in different languages) was being delivered, making it one of the strangest bugs on the platform. It’s not exactly clear what caused the issue, as YouTube gave little to no explanation to users.
However, on paper, it appears that the issue may have originated from a caching error in YouTube’s backend. The worst case scenario is a bug that may have occurred on the moderation side of the chat, and YouTube has openly admitted that it uses AI for content moderation.
The possible cause behind the bug is open to speculation unless YouTube provides more details, which I would say is unlikely at this stage, now that the bug has been resolved. However, the live chat bug sheds light on a bigger issue that YouTube needs to address as soon as possible.
YouTube’s AI chat moderation is too aggressive
Having used YouTube live chat during streams, I and many other users have noticed how aggressive chat moderation can be, even when content creators don’t actively block keywords.
While, as expected, non-safe-for-work text is blocked most of the time, there are multiple scenarios where safe-for-work content is also blocked, and that’s where YouTube’s AI chat moderation is to blame.
AI is far from perfect, and that statement particularly applies when it comes to discerning whether comments in live chats are appropriate or not. Without humans reviewing content, false flags are likely, and controversy grows when it is noted that AI moderation supposedly extends to scans of channels that may be violating community guidelines.
Unfortunately, platforms and companies beyond YouTube also rely on artificial intelligence to complete human tasks, and it is proving problematic for job security, technology hardware availability, and the normal functionality of multiple systems. It seems that AI is here to stay, and that is very worrying.
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