#YouTube 'automatically' deletes a comment in Chinese, 'Gongfei', which means 'communist bandit', in 15 seconds. YouTube says it’s been relying more on its automated filters in recent months due changes to its workforce brought about by the pandemic. The comments are removed too quickly for human moderation and are deleted even if the banned phrases are used positively (e.g., “The 五毛 are doing a fantastic job”). These phrases seem to have been accidentally added to YouTube’s comment filters, which automatically remove spam and offensive text. The name comes from claims that such commenters are paid 50 Chinese cents per post. The term “共匪” is an insult that dates back to China’s Nationalist government, while “五毛,” (or “wu mao”) is a derogatory slang term for internet users paid to direct online discussion away from criticism of the CCP.

The Verge found evidence that comments were being deleted as early as October 2019, when the issue was raised on YouTube’s official help pages and multiple users confirmed that they had experienced the same problem.Ĭomments left under videos or in live streams that contain the words “共匪” (“communist bandit”) or “五毛” (“50-cent party”) are automatically deleted in around 15 seconds, though their English language translations and Romanized Pinyin equivalents are not. The company did not elaborate on how or why this error came to be, but said it was not the result of any change in its moderation policy.īut if the deletions are the result of a simple mistake, then it’s one that’s gone unnoticed for six months. “Upon review by our teams, we have confirmed this was an error in our enforcement systems and we are working to fix it as quickly as possible,” said a YouTube spokesperson. The company confirmed to The Verge this was happening in error and that it’s working to fix the issue. YouTube is automatically deleting comments that contain certain Chinese-language phrases related to criticism of the country’s ruling Communist Party (CCP).

Youtube delete all comments 2018