Two years ago, YouTube introduced Shorts, bringing a wave of exciting and fun content that has enriched the platform's engagement tremendously. However, with this surge in activity, spammers and scammers started exploiting the community by sharing harmful links in comments and descriptions.

To counter this issue, YouTube has been working on refining its systems and policies and just announced sweeping changes aimed at bolstering user security and content integrity. Here's a breakdown of these advancements and what they mean for users and creators like you.
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First off, starting August 31st, YouTube will no longer have these features:
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- Clickable links in sections like Shorts comments and Shorts descriptions
- Clickable links in the vertical live feed
- Clickable social media icons on desktop channel banners
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Don’t panic just yet, as YouTube is cognizant of the significance of links for creators and is gradually rolling out new features to support them. Starting August 23rd, viewers will be greeted with prominent clickable links on creators’ channel profiles, near the ‘Subscribe’ button. You’ll be able to link websites, social profiles, and more, provided they mesh with YouTube's guidelines. See the animation below for how this will look.

YouTube also announced plans to seamlessly connect Shorts content with a creator's other video content, ensuring a cohesive viewing experience and more efficient engagement opportunities. An example of a way they’ll do this is shown in the image below.

Along with these changes, YouTube is also taking additional steps to address spam and impersonation issues, with a strategy consisting of:
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- Stricter impersonation policies that have led to a noteworthy 35% uptick in the removal of offending channels between Q1 '22 and Q1 '23.
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- New and improved comment moderation tools with an 'Increase Strictness' feature, which quarantines dubious comments.

If you have any questions about how to navigate these changes or are concerned about how these may affect your channel, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

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