[Deep Dive] The Escalating Threat of YouTube Comment Bots

Editor H
Jul 20
5 min read

📝 3-Sentence English Summary:

YouTube's comment sections are increasingly overrun by AI-powered bots posting spam, phishing links, and gambling promotions—turning comment spam into a profitable form of digital crime.
YouTube is trying to fight back using AI, but its efforts prioritize English, leaving non-English users like those in Korea more vulnerable as bots evolve rapidly and manipulate public discourse.
Real solutions will require stronger creator tools, international cooperation, legal enforcement, and a shift in user awareness—because blocking alone isn’t enough.

💬 The Invasion of Comment Bots on YouTube

You’re watching a fun YouTube video, open the comments, and suddenly, something feels off. Over-the-top emojis, weird compliments, and irrelevant channel promotions. These aren’t just odd users—they're AI-powered “comment bots.” Some are even sophisticated enough to analyze the video content and generate contextually appropriate responses. And they’re evolving fast.

The bigger issue? These aren’t just harmless spam—they’re part of a money-making system. They often link to gambling, adult content, or phishing sites. As long as people keep clicking and the creators earn money, the bots keep coming. Removing a few doesn’t stop the flood—it’s like battling a hydra: cut off one head, and two grow back.

So, what is YouTube doing? With creators and users affected this much, surely they’re not just watching this happen. Comments are essential for community engagement, and Google Korea's average employee salary is reportedly nearly 100 million won—it’s hard to believe they can’t handle this. So, let’s break down what the comment bot problem is, what YouTube is doing about it, and why it still isn’t enough.

🧪 Shocking Research: Only 1% of Accounts, but 12% of Comments?

A 2025 study shared by European media outlet FactCheck.BY analyzed 111 channels and nearly 94,000 comments. It found that while less than 1% of accounts were suspected bots, their comments made up a staggering 12% of the total. These comments distort the community atmosphere—burying genuine user comments or leading people to malicious links. It’s no longer just a nuisance—it’s threatening the entire platform ecosystem.

🤯 “Like-Bots” Manipulating Comment Rankings

Today’s comment bots don’t just post—they like their own comments and reply to them to boost visibility. Since YouTube ranks comments by likes and engagement, these bots use multiple accounts to “like” each other and create fake conversations.

There are even paid services that automate this process, making comments appear popular. The danger? Fake comments rise to the top, burying real opinions and manipulating public perception. YouTube has announced regulations, but their response hasn’t been fast enough.

🛠️ Is YouTube Really Doing Nothing?

Actually, YouTube is taking action. One major tool is its AI- and machine learning–based spam detection system. In 2022 alone, they deleted over 1.1 billion comments automatically. The AI has become more advanced—analyzing not just keywords, but repetitive account behavior, suspicious links, and unnatural sentence structure.

They also issue warnings to repeat offenders and can ban commenting for up to 24 hours, especially in livestreams. Newer models like CNN and LSTM-based hybrid spam filters are also in development, some reportedly achieving 95% accuracy. However, most of these efforts prioritize English first.

🇺🇸 Why Does YouTube Prioritize English?

YouTube always seems to roll out new tools in English first, with other languages like Korean trailing behind. This pattern has become an unspoken rule. Spam filters and AI moderation tools are launched for English comments first, and other languages follow much later. Korean users are understandably frustrated—"Why are we always treated as second-class users?"

But there’s a reason. YouTube is a U.S. company. It faces more direct political and legal pressure in its home country, and its biggest advertisers are based there. So when problems arise, they prioritize the U.S. market. In contrast, Korean platforms like Naver or Kakao react quickly to local complaints, but YouTube Korea has limited authority—slowing policy rollout and updates.

🧠 AI Bots Trained in English, Slow to Detect Other Languages

Spam detection models are mostly trained on English datasets, making them less effective for Korean or other languages. Studies show lower detection accuracy in non-English comments, so Korean users are more likely to encounter undetected bot comments.

This isn’t just a technical gap—it reinforces the perception that YouTube prioritizes English-speaking users, which can feel discriminatory.

🏁 Why Completely Eliminating Bots Is So Hard

There are three main reasons:

Scale: YouTube has over 2.5 billion monthly users. Monitoring billions of comments in real time is nearly impossible, even for Google.
Tech vs. Tech: It's a battle of innovation. Bot creators constantly evolve their tools—adding symbols, strange phrasing, and even human-like AI to bypass filters.
Profitability: These bots are not just playing around. They’re connected to gambling, adult, and phishing websites. Every click earns revenue, and that makes these operations worth scaling and evolving.

📉 Creators Are Burned Out

Many YouTubers feel hopeless. Deleting one spam comment only brings five more. Even with filters, bots find ways around them—it’s like fighting a hydra.

Some creators have even had their channels suspended after being falsely flagged by YouTube's AI for spreading harmful content—despite being innocent. That’s a painful consequence for people who’ve done nothing wrong.

🚧 So What’s the Real Solution?

YouTube must improve its AI filters and give creators more flexible tools—like custom filtering options, IP tracking, or bulk blocking.

Legally, stronger penalties against bot operators are needed. Since YouTube can’t handle this alone, international cooperation and regulation may be necessary—especially since these bots often lead to financial fraud, privacy leaks, or online scams. This is no longer just "spam"—it’s digital crime.

Users also need to change behavior. Instead of ignoring sketchy links or fake giveaways in the comments, people need to report them. And subscribers should support creators in managing comment sections, not just expect them to handle it all.

🚀 A Growing Bot Security Industry

Thankfully, the bot protection industry is booming. It’s projected to be worth $890 million (about 1.2 trillion won) in 2025, growing over 20% annually. By 2029, it could reach $2 billion—and by 2033, over $3.2 billion. The Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow fastest.

In short, fighting bots has become a global, high-stakes industry.

💡 Final Thoughts

YouTube isn’t ignoring the comment bot problem. They’re using AI, filters, and adding new tools—but their current response is too slow compared to how quickly bots are evolving. The language gap, lack of creator support, and prioritization of English-speaking regions all add up.

As a regular YouTube fan who watches travel vlogs to relax, I genuinely hope the comment bot issue gets resolved soon. The more this spreads, the more vulnerable groups—like children or the elderly—are likely to get hurt.