- YouTube fixed a recent bug that meant non-English comments in live chats would not be delivered
- Several users started making complaints on YouTube’s help platform
- It’s still unclear what caused the error, but it may have been a caching or AI moderation error
YouTube has gone through several changes over the years, with creators often voicing frustrations with moderation and monetization — and the platform’s latest release sums up those concerns.
Several users noticed a strange bug on YouTube’s live chat that only allowed emojis or non-English text to be sent and delivered, and was subsequently fixed, as noted by YouTube on its support page. This applied to both standard and super chat messages, temporarily screwing up live chat functionality.
I discovered this while chatting in a live stream and found that only disjointed text (or text in different languages) would be delivered, making it one of the most bizarre bugs on the platform. It’s not entirely clear what caused the problem, as YouTube gave little or no explanation to users.
On paper, however, it appears that the problem may stem from a caching error on YouTube’s backend. The worst-case scenario is an error that may have occurred on the chat moderation side, and YouTube has openly admitted that it uses AI for content moderation.
The potential reason behind the bug is open to speculation unless YouTube provides further details, which I’d say is unlikely at this point now that the bug has been fixed. However, the live chat glitch shines a light on a bigger problem that YouTube needs to fix as soon as possible.
YouTube’s AI chat moderation is too aggressive
After using YouTube’s live chat during streams, many other users and I have noticed how aggressive chat moderation can be, even when content creators aren’t actively blocking keywords.
While not surprisingly, non-safe-for-work text is blocked most of the time, there are several 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 is especially true for distinguishing whether comments in live chats are appropriate or not. Without humans reporting content, false flags are likely, and the controversy grows when you note that AI moderation reportedly extends to scans of channels that may be violating community guidelines.
Unfortunately, platforms and companies beyond YouTube also rely on artificial intelligence to perform human tasks, and this has proven problematic for job security, hardware availability in the technology, and the normal functionality of multiple systems. It seems that AI is here to stay and this is very worrying.
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