Manage spam in comments

We’ve simplified the comment moderation experience and merged the two moderation tabs, “Held for review” and “Likely spam,” in YouTube Studio. Now, comments automatically held by YouTube will show in the combined “Held for review” tab for up to 60 days.

The "Report" or “Report as spam or abuse” option for comments allows the community to control the number of spam comments.

Report a comment as spam

Anyone can mark a comment as spam. From the comments section of a video or channel:

Find the comment you’d like to report as spam.
Select More Report.
Select Unwanted commercial content or spam and REPORT.

Creators can also report spam while reviewing comments in YouTube Studio.

Use the report

feature with caution. Anyone who misuses it may be prohibited from using YouTube altogether.

Review comments held as spam

To review comments reported as spam on your videos or channel:

Sign in to YouTube Studio.
From the left menu, select Comments.
Choose the Held for review tab.

Note: If any comments have been reported as spam on your content, they’ll show toward the bottom of the Held for review tab. These comments will also be labeled as “Likely spam.”

From the Held for review tab, you can choose to:

Approve comments
Remove comments
Report comments for spam or abuse
Hide users from your channel

Understand spam

Spam is content or correspondences that create a negative experience by making it difficult to find more relevant and substantive material. It can sometimes be used to indiscriminately send unsolicited bulk messages on YouTube.

YouTube detects spam based on the text of a comment, or by the behavior from a particular commenter. For instance, repeatedly posting comments can be detected as spam.

Uploaders have more control over comments made on their videos. They can review your comment before it’s displayed or remove it altogether. The uploader can also "unmark" a comment as spam.

FAQ

What happens when a comment is reported as spam?

A comment reported as spam may be held for review in the Comments section of YouTube Studio for up to 60 days.

Can I undo marking a comment as spam?

No. Once you’ve marked a comment as spam, there’s no way to undo it.

Use the "Report spam or abuse" feature with extreme caution. If you misuse it, you may be prohibited from YouTube.

How do I block someone from spamming my comments?

To hide someone from your channel:

Find a comment that they’ve left on your channel or video.
Next to the comment, select More Hide from channel .

Can I stop filtering out spam comments?

Our systems automatically detect spam to help maintain a healthy conversation in YouTube comments. Creators can always review and unmark comments that were flagged as "likely spam".

Was this helpful?

How can we improve it?