YouTube's bizarre live chat bug has been fixed — but the chat system is still fundamentally flawed

• YouTube fixed a recent bug that meant non-English comments in live chats wouldn't be delivered
• Multiple users took to voicing complaints on the YouTube Help platform
• It remains unclear what caused the bug, but it may have been a caching or AI moderation error

YouTube has undergone numerous changes over the years, with content creators frequently voicing frustrations regarding moderation and monetization — and the platform's latest issue sums up these concerns.

Several users noticed a strange bug on YouTube's live chats, which only allowed emojis or non-English text to be sent and delivered, and was subsequently fixed, as noted by YouTube on its support page. This applied to both standard and super chat messages, temporarily spoiling live chat functionality.

I spotted this while chatting in a live stream, and found that only incoherent text (or text in different languages) would be delivered, making it one of the most bizarre bugs on the platform. It's not exactly clear what caused the issue, as YouTube gave little to no explanation to users.

On paper, however, it appears that the issue may have originated from a caching error on YouTube's backend. The worst-case scenario is an error that may have occurred on the side of chat moderation, and YouTube has openly admitted that it uses AI for content moderation.

The potential cause behind the bug is open to speculation unless YouTube provides any further details, which I would say is unlikely at this stage, now that the bug is resolved. However, the live chat bug sheds light on a bigger issue that YouTube needs to address as soon as possible.

YouTube's AI chat moderation is too aggressive

Having used YouTube's live chat during streams, many other users and I have noticed how aggressive the chat moderation can be, even when content creators aren't actively blocking keywords.

While not safe-for-work text is unsurprisingly blocked a majority of the time, there are multiple scenarios where safe-for-work content is also blocked, and that's where YouTube's AI chat moderation is to blame.

AI is far from perfect, and that statement particularly applies to discerning whether comments in live chats are appropriate or not. Without humans reviewing content, false flags are likely, and the controversy grows when noting that AI moderation supposedly extends to scans of channels that may be violating community guidelines.

Unfortunately, platforms and companies beyond YouTube are also relying on AI to complete human tasks, and it's proving problematic for job security, hardware availability in tech, and the normal functionality of multiple systems. It seems like AI is here to stay, and that's very worrying.

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