More than 30 million people worldwide were silenced in August when YouTube’s most popular content creator turned off the comments on his channel indefinitely. PewDiePie, a 25-year-old gamer from Sweden, recently announced that due to the number of spam comments his videos receive, he has practically no choice but to disable the commenting feature on his videos. While PewDiePie still offers his subscribers the chance to communicate with him on Twitter and through a forum on his website, his decision to disable comments is a controversial one in the YouTube community and for the future of anonymous commenting online.


PewDiePie opened up a virtual can of worms. Not only have multiple media outlets such as Business Insider and The Guardian reported the story, but other YouTubers are speaking out as well. In a recent episode of web series YouTubers React, TheFineBros encouraged a dialogue on this topic, which revealed the censorship and freedom of speech concerns that many content creators entertain when it comes to turning off the comments.

Like many social media platforms, the YouTube comments system allows for users to be essentially anonymous in their postings. Though one must have a YouTube or Google account to comment, it is easy to provide the site with a fake name and birthdate upon signing up despite that being against the site’s Terms of Service. In fact, there are even tutorials on how to comment on videos anonymously, a concern that many users had when YouTube and Google+ merged in late 2013. Despite the call for the removal of anonymous commenting online due mainly to cyberbullying, remaining anonymous is a protected privacy right for Americans.

The right to anonymous speech stems from the First Amendment, and was first recognized in the political realm. For instance, in 1960 the Supreme Court held in Talley v. California that the distribution of anonymous pamphlets enjoys First Amendment protection. This allows citizens to not fear retaliation for their unpopular opinions and to engage in discussions on matters of public importance. Today, this rule is applied to Internet speech as well.

Yet PewDiePie made it clear that even though YouTube may offer a comment system, content creators do not have to provide users with a voice. In fact, not only may YouTubers turn off the comments, but with the Blacklist feature they can censor comments based on certain keywords they wish to ban. For instance, if a beauty guru puts the word “ugly” on her Blacklist, comments containing that word will not be permitted. Thus, in reality, commenters do not enjoy free anonymous speech on YouTube.

This raises a number of privacy concerns that Americans struggle to balance. Does the right to anonymous speech include the right to remain anonymous even when speech turns sour? Anonymous commenting online has both its benefits and its serious consequences. Thought Catalog, for instance, finds that anonymity on its site allows people to “feel more comfortable sharing their personal experiences.” But is there a time when people become too comfortable? It often seems that anonymity can be a gateway to issues such as cyberbullying, especially on YouTube.

Peruse the comments on any popular YouTube video (including the YouTubers react episode linked in this article) and it is clear just how rampant cyberbullying is on the platform. While PewDiePie claims he was motivated to turn the comments off purely because of spam, other YouTubers admit to being affected by hate comments. In fact, beauty and lifestyle vlogger Zoella recently stated that she stopped daily vlogging because of personal attacks. While American law may provide some protection, allowing anonymous comments makes unmasking the attackers extremely difficult, especially in a globalized Internet community.

YouTube’s comment controls thus help to alleviate the problems that arise when people are permitted to comment anonymously. While silencing viewers may be a bit extreme, PewDiePie’s decision helped to bring light to the nuanced YouTube comment system, and the options available to content creators in the face of cyberbullying. It will be interesting to see whether more YouTubers will follow in PewDiePie’s footsteps, or if viewers will begin to fight back against the censorship. Whatever comes next, it is clear that content creators play a significant role in influencing public policy in the privacy realm.