How to use moderation tools for live chat & comments

Moderators can help review and manage comments users leave on videos or the messages participants send during your stream’s live chat. When creators add a moderator, they can choose whether they’re a standard moderator or a managing moderator. Managing moderators have more options available to them than standard moderators.

Learn more about comment moderation and live chat moderation. Moderators maintain their status until a creator removes them.

Live chat

  1. Go to YouTube.com.
  2. In the top-right corner, click Search  and enter the channel name to access the watch page.
  3. Select your Livestream to enter the Live Chat.
  4. Click Settings next to the message or comment to select a moderation action. You can also hold down the Control + Alt keys to pause chat.

There are two types of moderators: a standard moderator and managing moderator. A standard moderator can:

  • Go to channel: You can learn about a live chat participant before taking a moderation action by going directly to their channel.
  • Remove: You can remove any inappropriate or potentially abusive or offensive content. When you delete a message, it’s permanently removed from the live chat with any replies.
  • Hide user from this channel: When you hide someone from the channel, their chat messages and comments will no longer be visible to other viewers. YouTube doesn't tell the person that you've hidden them.
  • Review potentially Inappropriate messages: You can show or hide comments or messages that have been held for review based on your community settings.

A managing moderator can do the above, in addition to:

  • Community default: You can turn on this feature to use technology to automatically detect spam, self-promotion, gibberish, and other potentially inappropriate content in comments. Learn more.
  • Turn Live Chat on/off: You can turn Live chat on or off at any time, even after the event has started.
  • Participation mode: You can change participation modes in live chat by choosing subscriber only, members only, or live commentary.
  • Message delay: You can limit how often each user can send a chat message by setting a time limit between messages.
  • Blocked words: You can block live chat messages that contain or closely match certain words.
  • Manage standard moderators: You can add and remove approved users.
Note: Managing moderators don’t have access to the Live Control Room or YouTube Studio. Managing moderators can’t assign other moderators.

Access Channel Activity from live chat feed:

You and your moderators can access public user history from the live chat feed by clicking Channel Activity from the Menu. Learn more.

Live chat participants

In live chat, icons and colors are used to visually identify certain participants. More than 1 icon can appear next to someone’s username at a time.

Icon Meaning
Creator / channel owner
Creator with a verified account
Participant with a verified account
Channel member
Channel moderator

Comments

There are a few ways to access comment moderation tools in the YouTube mobile app.

Moderate from comment settings

If you’re a channel owner or moderator, go to any video and tap Comments and then Settings . From there, you can manage comment settings for the channel, including:

Action Channel Owner Managing moderator Standard moderator
Video comment settings  Yes Yes No
Add, delete all, or copy all blocked words Yes Yes No
Turn on or off the block links feature Yes Yes No

Moderate a comment from the watch page

If you’re a channel owner or moderator, tap More  beside a comment on a video to view moderation options. From there, you can manage individual comments, including:

Action Channel Owner Managing moderator Standard moderator
Pin or unpin a comment Yes No No
Delete or hold comment for review Yes - Delete Yes - Hold for review  Yes - Hold for review
Report comment Yes Yes Yes
Add or remove managing moderators Yes No No
Add or remove standard moderators Yes Yes No
Add or remove approved users Yes Yes No
Add or remove hidden users Yes Yes Yes

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