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YT-Spammer-Purge: Scan for and delete spam comments on YouTube

137 points by zikohh 5y ago

zikohh 5y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vOakOgYLUI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vOakOgYLUI
spicybright 5y ago
...people actually read youtube comments?
- bombcar 5y ago
  The first few highest rated comments are worth a glance, because if somethings critically wrong it’ll usually be mentioned there.
  - randomblock1 5y ago
    Now that we don't have a dislike button, the comments are the only option.
    - spicybright 5y ago
      Not when it's sorted by most votes. Every comment you see is "this video is so good!" even if it's not. Basically useless.
      - coredog64 5y ago
        I’m guilty of this. I follow some smaller channels and I want to encourage them and to juice the algorithm a bit by giving them some engagement beyond a “like”.
        spicybright 5y ago
        Definitely don't feel guilty! It's great to support content creators you like. I'm just arguing the comments section is weighted for those types of comments, so it's a poor indicator if you'll actually like the video or not.
    - paulpauper 5y ago
      except when critical comments are removed
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - dncornholio 5y ago
    I haven't seen many critical comments anymore. Even on videos that are just completely wrong, the top comments are alway full of praise.
- sumtechguy 5y ago
  I blocked them with ublock a few years ago. It was too tempting to engage in silly online arguments over things that really in the long run did not matter.
geerlingguy 5y ago
This has gotten exponentially worse in the past month. In the past, I'd see maybe one or two videos get targeted with Telegram scams per month. At this point, every one of my videos is targeted, and usually in waves two or three times before the spammers give up. Sadly, there are at least 5-10 people _per week_ who now email me asking if the scam is legit, and I have to tell them no, I would never choose you to win something then ask you to send me $100 to send it to you. The tool linked here works perfectly every time for me... I don't know how this problem is so prevalent (MKBHD said it's like 6-10% of all comments on his channel now) and YouTube can still ignore it (while doing other pointless things like removing public dislike counts).
- 0des 5y ago
  Engagement is engagement to them. Remember this is google we are talking about. To say they don't care implies that at some point they did.
  - ksarw 5y ago
    I know they have team(s) of very smart people dedicated to solving this issue (at least at the individual level). So assuming they care, I can think of two main reasons as to why it is not solved yet, both related to scale as Marques mentioned: 1.) Scale of the problem - It might be that they are already catching 99% of the stuff and we just see what falls through the cracks 2.) Scale of the solving - It could be that the teams and infrastructure are so large that they can't make the rapid adjustments needed compete in such an arms race On a separate note, I imagine a higher quality comment section would increase engagement more than any "appealing" scam.
    - Nextgrid 5y ago
      > I know they have team(s) of very smart people dedicated to solving this issue (at least at the individual level). Do you actually know, or are you being generous and still trying to assume good faith from a company that disproved it several times? I don't see a business reason for them to take action. The spam comments don't open them to any legal liability (they already get away with much worse), YouTube has a monopoly so no amounts of spam will drive users away, the spam contributes to engagement numbers and the advertisers don't seem to mind.
nickthegreek 5y ago
MKBHD just released a video where he used this and was happy with the results but hated that it was even needed. https://youtu.be/1Cw-vODp-8Y https://youtu.be/1Cw-vODp-8Y
- throw0101a 5y ago
  Linus (Tech Tips) in February: > YouTube’s spam problem has gotten out of hand… And it’s up to the community once again to do what YouTube can’t. Thankfully, the community has delivered… * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo_uoFI1WXM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo_uoFI1WXM
- lelandfe 5y ago
  Wow, the tool found that 30% of his video's comments were spam.
  - dylan604 5y ago
    Which part of that is surprising to you? That 30% of YT comments are spam, or that the software worked to that degree?
    - Fogest 5y ago
      Not the OP, but I am personally surprised by many things. - YouTube's comment system is horrible at dealing with spam - A tool made by a random person online is able to find and remove so many of these comments, meanwhile YouTube with WAAAAYYYY more resources, data, people, etc... is somehow not - The fact that the spam problem is so bad that tech YouTubers are seeing tools like this remove around 30% of the comments on their videos is insane. Overall I barely even look at the comment section on YouTube anymore because of how big of a mess it is. It's refreshing to look at the comments on Linus Tech Tip videos as they are free from most spam due to them making use of this tool. It's super surprising how long this problem has been going on, and just how much it keeps worsening. It just seems crazy how long Google has been letting this problem go unchecked.
      - 5y ago
hackernewds 5y ago
this seems like what should be a one week data science project at YouTube. kind of embarrassing
- kyrra 5y ago
  Googler, opinions are my own. My guess is that YouTube could easily build the exact same tool. The problem is when you roll it out across your entire site, the spammers figure out the holes in it and start abusing it. I'm guessing the same thing would happen with this tool. If some large percentage of channels started using it, spammers would find the holes in it.
  - dhzhzjsbevs 5y ago
    Between Gmail, Search and AdWords I'm sure you numbskulls could come up with something to deal with a bit of spam.
    - kyruzic 5y ago
      Sir he is a Googler show some respect. Imagine actually referring to yourself as a Googler.
      - throwmeariver1 5y ago
        OK, Metamate.
  - gameswithgabe 5y ago
    I don't find this argument very convincing. The same argument could be made about security vulnerabilities, but I'm willing to bet (and hoping that this is the case) that Google will invest millions of dollars and man hours per year on security patches and secure systems. Sure, hackers will always find loop holes. But when that happens we flag that version as vulnerable and release a patch to fix the vulnerability. This is the exact same technique Google could apply to the YouTube spam. They just don't want to spend the money or time to do it.
i67vw3 5y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30616055 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30616055 A recent post I made about adult pics and usernames on youtube comment section. Usually like this 'Click here, to view sexy videos' but alphabets are replaced with different characters so as to not get caught by Anti-adult content youtube algorithm. Eg., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-kvFACZ5yE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-kvFACZ5yE (a random video from homepage, proxy link-https://piped.kavin.rocks/watch?v=F-kvFACZ5yE https://piped.kavin.rocks/watch?v=F-kvFACZ5yE
tehlike 5y ago
Make this a chrome extension, and you will have a great time selling it.
01100011 5y ago
I watch a lot of financial videos on YT and noticed the sophistication of the spam has increased lately. Previously you'd have either: - someone stealing the logo of the video owner responding to your comments with whatsapp links - some MLM-esque praise for a particular person's crypto trading scheme. for the second case, you now have spam bots replying to the top comment with a vaguely realistic sounding dialog with comments alternating between people asking for more information, similarly praising the crypto scheme, or giving contact information. The comments section has basically become useless at this point due to the level of spam. You still have content creators encouraging you to comment to trick the YT algorithm though.
- cersa8 5y ago
  Exactly this, sometimes up to 30 comments and likes, all by the same spam bot. If you call out the spammer below his comment the bot reports you and your comment will be removed.
  - unlikelymordant 5y ago
    I just report the top level comment as spam, and it disappears for me. I feel i have done everything i can at that point, no need to engage spammers.
    - zikohh 5y ago
      I've tried this, it does nothing, I visited the page 3 weeks later no help. Neither does this script give instant feedback it still manually has to be actioned by a human. I think this tool is only useful if you own the channel and use it. Otherwise, it doesnt matter. YouTube just doesnt care.
dvh 5y ago
Simplest solution for YouTube is IMHO allow channels to hide all usernames and profile pictures in comment section.
xafke 5y ago
I build something similar with a basic classifier in Tensorflow: https://github.com/Savjee/yt-spam-classifier https://github.com/Savjee/yt-spam-classifier Here's the training dataset that I've been using. It includes all comments from my channel from last year until now. And I've manually tagged about 3000 of them as spam. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QEQrLne1SDxwQVl5qpGQokEKG4FNZqX6kMuFMmAyeWg/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QEQrLne1SDxwQVl5qpGQ...

137 points by zikohh 5y ago

zikohh 5y ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vOakOgYLUI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vOakOgYLUI

spicybright 5y ago

...people actually read youtube comments?

bombcar 5y ago
The first few highest rated comments are worth a glance, because if somethings critically wrong it’ll usually be mentioned there.
- randomblock1 5y ago
  Now that we don't have a dislike button, the comments are the only option.
  - spicybright 5y ago
    Not when it's sorted by most votes. Every comment you see is "this video is so good!" even if it's not. Basically useless.
    - coredog64 5y ago
      I’m guilty of this. I follow some smaller channels and I want to encourage them and to juice the algorithm a bit by giving them some engagement beyond a “like”.
      - spicybright 5y ago
        Definitely don't feel guilty! It's great to support content creators you like. I'm just arguing the comments section is weighted for those types of comments, so it's a poor indicator if you'll actually like the video or not.
  - paulpauper 5y ago
    except when critical comments are removed
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- dncornholio 5y ago
  I haven't seen many critical comments anymore. Even on videos that are just completely wrong, the top comments are alway full of praise.
sumtechguy 5y ago
I blocked them with ublock a few years ago. It was too tempting to engage in silly online arguments over things that really in the long run did not matter.

geerlingguy 5y ago

This has gotten exponentially worse in the past month. In the past, I'd see maybe one or two videos get targeted with Telegram scams per month. At this point, every one of my videos is targeted, and usually in waves two or three times before the spammers give up. Sadly, there are at least 5-10 people _per week_ who now email me asking if the scam is legit, and I have to tell them no, I would never choose you to win something then ask you to send me $100 to send it to you. The tool linked here works perfectly every time for me... I don't know how this problem is so prevalent (MKBHD said it's like 6-10% of all comments on his channel now) and YouTube can still ignore it (while doing other pointless things like removing public dislike counts).

0des 5y ago
Engagement is engagement to them. Remember this is google we are talking about. To say they don't care implies that at some point they did.
- ksarw 5y ago
  I know they have team(s) of very smart people dedicated to solving this issue (at least at the individual level). So assuming they care, I can think of two main reasons as to why it is not solved yet, both related to scale as Marques mentioned: 1.) Scale of the problem - It might be that they are already catching 99% of the stuff and we just see what falls through the cracks 2.) Scale of the solving - It could be that the teams and infrastructure are so large that they can't make the rapid adjustments needed compete in such an arms race On a separate note, I imagine a higher quality comment section would increase engagement more than any "appealing" scam.
  - Nextgrid 5y ago
    > I know they have team(s) of very smart people dedicated to solving this issue (at least at the individual level). Do you actually know, or are you being generous and still trying to assume good faith from a company that disproved it several times? I don't see a business reason for them to take action. The spam comments don't open them to any legal liability (they already get away with much worse), YouTube has a monopoly so no amounts of spam will drive users away, the spam contributes to engagement numbers and the advertisers don't seem to mind.

nickthegreek 5y ago

MKBHD just released a video where he used this and was happy with the results but hated that it was even needed. https://youtu.be/1Cw-vODp-8Y https://youtu.be/1Cw-vODp-8Y

throw0101a 5y ago
Linus (Tech Tips) in February: > YouTube’s spam problem has gotten out of hand… And it’s up to the community once again to do what YouTube can’t. Thankfully, the community has delivered… * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo_uoFI1WXM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo_uoFI1WXM
lelandfe 5y ago
Wow, the tool found that 30% of his video's comments were spam.
- dylan604 5y ago
  Which part of that is surprising to you? That 30% of YT comments are spam, or that the software worked to that degree?
  - Fogest 5y ago
    Not the OP, but I am personally surprised by many things. - YouTube's comment system is horrible at dealing with spam - A tool made by a random person online is able to find and remove so many of these comments, meanwhile YouTube with WAAAAYYYY more resources, data, people, etc... is somehow not - The fact that the spam problem is so bad that tech YouTubers are seeing tools like this remove around 30% of the comments on their videos is insane. Overall I barely even look at the comment section on YouTube anymore because of how big of a mess it is. It's refreshing to look at the comments on Linus Tech Tip videos as they are free from most spam due to them making use of this tool. It's super surprising how long this problem has been going on, and just how much it keeps worsening. It just seems crazy how long Google has been letting this problem go unchecked.
    - 5y ago

hackernewds 5y ago

this seems like what should be a one week data science project at YouTube. kind of embarrassing

kyrra 5y ago
Googler, opinions are my own. My guess is that YouTube could easily build the exact same tool. The problem is when you roll it out across your entire site, the spammers figure out the holes in it and start abusing it. I'm guessing the same thing would happen with this tool. If some large percentage of channels started using it, spammers would find the holes in it.
- dhzhzjsbevs 5y ago
  Between Gmail, Search and AdWords I'm sure you numbskulls could come up with something to deal with a bit of spam.
  - kyruzic 5y ago
    Sir he is a Googler show some respect. Imagine actually referring to yourself as a Googler.
    - throwmeariver1 5y ago
      OK, Metamate.
- gameswithgabe 5y ago
  I don't find this argument very convincing. The same argument could be made about security vulnerabilities, but I'm willing to bet (and hoping that this is the case) that Google will invest millions of dollars and man hours per year on security patches and secure systems. Sure, hackers will always find loop holes. But when that happens we flag that version as vulnerable and release a patch to fix the vulnerability. This is the exact same technique Google could apply to the YouTube spam. They just don't want to spend the money or time to do it.

i67vw3 5y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30616055 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30616055 A recent post I made about adult pics and usernames on youtube comment section. Usually like this 'Click here, to view sexy videos' but alphabets are replaced with different characters so as to not get caught by Anti-adult content youtube algorithm. Eg., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-kvFACZ5yE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-kvFACZ5yE (a random video from homepage, proxy link-https://piped.kavin.rocks/watch?v=F-kvFACZ5yE https://piped.kavin.rocks/watch?v=F-kvFACZ5yE

tehlike 5y ago

Make this a chrome extension, and you will have a great time selling it.

01100011 5y ago

I watch a lot of financial videos on YT and noticed the sophistication of the spam has increased lately. Previously you'd have either: - someone stealing the logo of the video owner responding to your comments with whatsapp links - some MLM-esque praise for a particular person's crypto trading scheme. for the second case, you now have spam bots replying to the top comment with a vaguely realistic sounding dialog with comments alternating between people asking for more information, similarly praising the crypto scheme, or giving contact information. The comments section has basically become useless at this point due to the level of spam. You still have content creators encouraging you to comment to trick the YT algorithm though.

cersa8 5y ago
Exactly this, sometimes up to 30 comments and likes, all by the same spam bot. If you call out the spammer below his comment the bot reports you and your comment will be removed.
- unlikelymordant 5y ago
  I just report the top level comment as spam, and it disappears for me. I feel i have done everything i can at that point, no need to engage spammers.
  - zikohh 5y ago
    I've tried this, it does nothing, I visited the page 3 weeks later no help. Neither does this script give instant feedback it still manually has to be actioned by a human. I think this tool is only useful if you own the channel and use it. Otherwise, it doesnt matter. YouTube just doesnt care.

dvh 5y ago

Simplest solution for YouTube is IMHO allow channels to hide all usernames and profile pictures in comment section.

xafke 5y ago

I build something similar with a basic classifier in Tensorflow: https://github.com/Savjee/yt-spam-classifier https://github.com/Savjee/yt-spam-classifier Here's the training dataset that I've been using. It includes all comments from my channel from last year until now. And I've manually tagged about 3000 of them as spam. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QEQrLne1SDxwQVl5qpGQokEKG4FNZqX6kMuFMmAyeWg/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QEQrLne1SDxwQVl5qpGQ...