San Francisco, August 11th (IANS) – Google’s subsidiary, YouTube, is taking steps to combat spam and fraudulent activities. They have revealed that, commencing from August 31, links present in Shorts comments and descriptions will no longer be clickable.
In a recent announcement on a support page, the platform expressed, “Starting on August 31st, 2023, the functionality of clickable links will be removed from Shorts comments, Shorts descriptions, and the vertical live feed. This transition will be implemented progressively.”
The motivation behind this alteration is to deter scammers and spammers from exploiting clickable links to deceive or defraud users. YouTube acknowledges the swift evolution of abusive strategies, compelling them to adopt preemptive measures.
Furthermore, the update noted that clickable social media icons will be removed from all desktop channel banners. Although links serve as a vital medium for creators to share information and endorse products/brands within their communities, YouTube is introducing novel methods to highlight crucial links.
“Commencing August 23rd, 2023, both mobile and desktop users will notice prominent, clickable links adjacent to the ‘Subscribe’ button on creators’ channel profiles.”
The video-sharing platform elaborated that they will be rolling out a safer mechanism for creators to direct Shorts viewers to their other YouTube content by the conclusion of the upcoming month.
Earlier this week, the platform under Google’s umbrella initiated testing of the new ‘For You’ section. This feature aims to personalize the channel homepage for individual viewers, suggesting an amalgamation of diverse content types from the channel, predicated on their past video consumption.