YouTube’s Spammy Sex Bots Make a Ton of Money
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YouTube’s Spammy Sex Bots Make a Ton of Money
Photo: Leon Bublitz/Unsplash
My YouTube channel is extremely wholesome. I post helpful, friendly tutorial videos. I sign off, rather cheesily, with, “Happy writing!”
That’s why it’s so annoying when my videos get flooded with decidedly not-PG and nonsensical comments from what the YouTube community has dubbed “sex bots.”
If you’ve posted a YouTube video, or even scrolled through the comments of one, you’ll probably know what I’m talking about:
Screenshot of sex bot comments taken by the author.
These sex bots are pervasive and obviously not real people. But it’s such a weird strategy that, though I was irritated, I was also deeply curious. As I recently did with spammy Instagram requests “dm to collab,” I decided to investigate the strategy behind these YouTube sex bots.
What were these sex bots trying to accomplish? Why were they leaving oddly horny comments? Why were they targeting my videos? (How could I get them to stop?)
The answer was not as straightforward as I’d hoped. You can read below or check out the video I made about it to find out what I learned.
The primary aim is to drive views to a playlist of longer, monetized videos
For the rest of this story to make sense, you should understand three things:
Most YouTubers make money from ads on their videos. This incentivizes YouTubers to do their best to game the algorithm in order to get more views. The YouTube algorithm is mysterious and capricious, leading to many bizarre strategies that are surprisingly effective, like “Elsagate,” and the one you’re about to read.
The very first thing I did was click on the YouTube accounts that had left these obviously spammy comments to see what they had in common.
Each profile had a couple of subscribers and was founded in August 2020. The names were all vaguely uncommon and feminine (for example, Izayah Emerson), and the profile pictures all featured dark-haired women with pale skin and improbably large bosoms.
Screenshot by the author of Izayah Emerson’s YouTube profile.
The weirdest thing was that none of them had uploaded any videos. Instead, they only had playlists on their profiles. The playlists all started with an NSFW thumbnail of what looks like, frankly, a low-budget porn film.
Screenshot from Fortun MJ xQue’s YouTube profile.
I thought I had pieced together their strategy at this point. These accounts, acting as modern-day digital sirens, would lure unsuspecting viewers who had clicked on their intriguingly sexual comments onto the proverbial rocks of these pornographic playlists.
But YouTube isn’t PornHub. It has pretty strict policies in place banning “sexually gratifying content.” This meant my hypothesis couldn’t be right. You can’t upload porn onto YouTube.
I needed to investigate further.
Bracing myself, I lowered the volume on my computer and clicked on one of the videos on the first playlist, entitled rather cryptically, “18 6.”
Nothing happened. After two seconds of looking at that image above, the playlist moved onto the next video — a 90-minute deep house music compilation featuring a young woman in a bikini dancing on a beach in slow motion.
I realized that the original provocative thumbnail showed a “video” that was literally a still image shown for two seconds, long enough to count as a video and entrap viewers, but short enough that it perhaps would not be flagged by YouTube’s automated flagging system. It was the bait to get viewers on the playlist.
The playlist contained a bizarre mix of very short fake sex videos and ludicrously long and unrelated music compilations and atmospheric music.
VERIFY: No, Facebook ‘bots’ aren’t fact-checking your posts
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Facebook has confirmed that such claims are a hoax.
Viral claims telling Facebook users that they can block fact-checks of their posts have been circulating since early this year.
These posts claim that you can go into Facebook’s settings and block “bots” that fact check your posts.
Facebook’s fact-check system doesn’t quite work that way, however.
THE QUESTION
Can you change your settings to stop Facebook from fact checking your posts?
THE ANSWER
No. A Facebook spokesperson told VERIFY in an email, “the ability to turn off our fact checking partners is a debunked hoax.”
Facebook doesn’t use bots for fact checking posts either.
WHAT WE FOUND
Ryan Peters, a Facebook spokesman, says it’s a hoax. “We don’t have bots that scan posts for falsehoods,” he said in an email.
Instead, Facebook says it uses independent, third-party fact-checkers “certified through the nonpartisan International Fact-Checking Network.” The fact-checkers review Facebook and Instagram posts, videos, images and links in an effort “to address viral misinformation – provably false claims, particularly those that have the potential to mislead or harm,” it says.
Facebook also has a three-part strategy in handling “problematic content” – it removes posts that plainly violate its policies, reduces the distribution of questionable content in news feeds, and applies warning labels to flagged content so people can judge for themselves what to read and share.
You can manage your blocks within Facebook’s settings, but there’s no single master list where you’d just type “fact check.” There are separate lists for blocking users, messages, apps and pages. None of those allows you to block the independent, third-party fact-checkers themselves.
While it’s possible to block the pages for fact-checkers, that will just stop you from seeing their page’s posts and the page itself from seeing your post. This doesn’t block individuals operating the page or block links from the pages’ website from appearing under your posts.
What Are Fact Checkers On Facebook? Everything You Need To Know About Fact-checker Bots
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Are you wondering, ‘what are fact-checkers on Facebook?’ Facebook is extremely committed to fighting the spread of fake news on its portal. Hence, the social media website introduced a third-party fact-checking program in 2016 to review and remove fake accounts, promote news literacy and prevent spammers from receiving financial incentives. The fact-checker bots on Facebook work with IFCN-certified fact-checkers around the world. The fact-checking bot on Facebook adopts a three-part approach to address the problem of problematic content on Facebook. Here’s some information about the Facebook three-party approach:
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Remove: This approach removes hate speech, fake accounts and terrorist content from Facebook. This is done when the content violates Facebook’s Community Standards and Ad policies. This is done to ensure safety, authenticity, privacy and dignity. Reduce: This approach helps to balance the freedom of speech along with maintaining an authentic environment. When fake-news is identified by the fact-checking partners, its distribution is reduced in the news feed and other such surfaces. Inform: This approach applies strong warning labels on fact-checked content. This enables users to view the conclusions of the fact-checking partners. They can then decide whether to read, trust or share the content.
How does Facebook curb the spread of false news?
Identification: At first Facebook tries to identify which news is false. This depends upon the feedback that it receives from people. Further, the application may also identify stories to review on their own.
ALSO READ: Facebook Cites EU Report To Claim It Tackles Hate Speech Better Than Google & Twitter
Review: The third-party fact-checkers then review the content, verify the facts and rate the accuracy. Further, the third-party checker offers the three rating options. They are: False, Partly False and False Headline.
Filtering the fake news: If a piece of content is rated as false, it will appear less in the news feeds. Further, it will also be filtered out from Instagram. This is done to reduce the viewership of the post.
Taking Action: The pages who repeatedly share fake-news might be allowed to share lesser posts thereafter. Further, Facebook may also reduce their ability to monetize and advertise. Further, these pages will no longer be registered as news pages on Facebook.
Posts and ads from politicians:
The feature does not apply to posts and ads from politicians. If a politician shares his claims on Facebook it is considered direct speech and is hence ineligible for the third-party fact-checking program. Facebook excludes the following people through its fact-checking bot: candidates running for office, current officeholders, cabinet appointees, political parties, and their leaders.
Should I block fact-checker bots on Facebook?
Recently a false Facebook post said that Facebook was deploying “bots” disguised as fact-checkers to block posts. Hence, the post urged users to block fact-checker on Facebook. This news is completely false.
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The Fact checker tool introduced by Facebook has been well-received by several users. This feature is a huge attempt on the part of Mark Zuckerberg to prevent the spread of fake news. Further, these fact-checkers are non-partisan fact-checking networks that help to identify and review false news.
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