YouTube Disables Hidden Subscriber Counts
YouTube has disabled the ability to hide subscriber numbers to combat creator impersonation.
YouTube has made it impossible for channels to hide their subscribers to combat creator impersonation.
Spammers can hide subscriber numbers to impersonate other channels by leaving comments.
Low subscriber counts signify that someone pretending to be another creator isn’t who they claim to be.
Many YouTubers are concerned about identity-related abuse and comment spam.
Several updates have been released to protect creators and viewers from comment spam, making it more difficult to impersonate creators.
These updates include:
- Disabling hidden subscriber counts
- Increase auto-moderation capabilities
- Limiting the use of special characters in a channel name
These updates are described in more detail.
Hidden Subscriber Counts
YouTube channels have always been able to hide their subscribers.
This feature is valuable for some creators, like those who are just starting and don’t want their subscribers to judge them.
YouTube states that it is often used to impersonate channels.
People are often lured to their channel pages by bad actors who impersonate other creators.
YouTube has updated its subscriber count feature to allow channels to no longer hide their subscribers.
YouTube claims this will make the Community more secure, but it will upset creators who didn’t abuse the option to hide subscribers.
Moderation
YouTube allows channels to hold comments for moderation before they are made public.
YouTube has updated its auto-moderation to allow creators to adjust the level of strictness.
More stringent comment moderation will help detect spam and inappropriate comments.
Sign into Creator Studio, and then select ‘Settings’. Next select Community. Finally, choose Defaults.
Click the box that says “hold potentially inappropriate comments for review”, then click on “increase strictness”.
This setting will allow spammers and solicitations to automatically filter through the ‘held up for review’ tab.
Channels can then choose to delete or publish the comment publicly.
Limiting Special Characters
One way that bad actors can impersonate established channels is by using special characters in channel name names.
YouTube has reduced the number of characters creators have to choose from to prevent impersonation attempts.