Super Chat allows creators to monetise the comments posted during their live streams. A May 2022 report by Ciarán O’Connor of the UK-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) explores how YouTube and creators on the platform earn revenue from Super Chat and the non-implementation of its content moderation guidelines. Cash for Comments studies how the platform’s ‘Super Chat’ feature is used by creators to monetise live streams—and by users to post harmful content that often appears to violate YouTube's Community Guidelines. The report surveyed 17,152 comments across 3 prominent channels covering politics, based in the United States—of these, 907, or 5%, contained keywords pertaining to harmful speech. All of these comments were publicly visible when ISD studied them between October 2020 to January 2022—indicating that YouTube never took them down despite their inflammatory content. The report adds that non-advertising features like 'Super Chats are an increasingly important source of revenue for both creators and YouTube.' Why it matters: The report, largely exploratory in nature, offers only one recommendation: that YouTube and Google mandate the use of moderators during live streams, to ensure that harmful content cannot be monetised in the future. While the report focuses on the United States (and the West), it can serve as a template for similar research on YouTube in India. As MediaNama has previously reported, few studies exist on the platform’s influence and impact on Indian society, and almost none on how Super Chat comments may be used by extremist groups. What Is Super Chat? Replacing…
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How YouTube’s ‘Super Chat’ Connects Fans to Creators—While Also Monetising Harmful Content
YouTube’s Super Chat feature lets fans pay to get comments pinned. A report explores how this can also end up promoting online hate speech.
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