Yeah, this whole "Youtube isn't even trying" is a massive survivor bias/fallacy because it ignores all the failed moderation attempts that aren't visible.

Its less that nobody at Youtube tried to solve the problem but more that it was never a business priority in the interests of the bottom line to solve this problem in a nuanced way.

For Youtube, these kinds of comments threaten to alienate advertisers. Comments only have a miniscule impact on viewer retention and engagement, so if the actual business is threatened by comments you just get rid of the comment system.

Saying it's not a "business" priority is the same as saying that Youtube isn't trying, just with more words. It's also subject to the same survivor bias because we don't know the "business" investments into community and moderation.

Exactly, they want to have their cake and eat it too. Low overhead, automated everything, anonymous comments, and respectability to draw ad revenue and avoid sanctions. Those are mutually exclusive goals on a large platform, and I don’t look forward to seeing hamhanded legislation with the inevitable cronyism and political infighting “solve” the problem either.

Like the big game companies and their kiddie casino business model, it will eventually be slapped down if they can’t control themselves first.

Killed a lot of other things too. And plenty of people will post hate speech under their own name. Even in the byline of a national newspaper.

What's even more amazing is that they're willing to do it in the bylines of local newspapers, where there's a non-zero chance of you running into that person in your day-to-day activities.

> IIRC it did largely cure YouTube comments.

Did it? I don't remember that being true.