How to Remove People's Comments on YouTube

At their best, YouTube comments can foster discussion and debate around a video, and provide positive feedback for its creators; at their worst, they can be distracting, spam-filled and abusive. YouTube gives you full control over the comments left under the clips you've uploaded: for each video, you can choose to approve comments before they are posted or disable them completely.

To find your YouTube videos, follow the "Video Manager" link from the drop-down menu that displays when you click on your avatar. Click "Edit" by any clip to access its options: from the Advanced Settings tab you can switch comments off, allow only approved comments, or allow all comments. These same settings are available whenever you upload new clips. From the Video Manager, select "Comments" under Community to approve or delete submitted comments, if moderation is turned on. Comments can also be removed after they've been published by clicking the trash can icon.

If you want to delete comments that have already been posted under one of your videos, open the video page on YouTube and click the arrow to the top right of the comment. Choose "Remove" from the drop-down list to delete the selected comment and all replies associated with it. You must be logged in to YouTube to remove a comment, and you can delete only comments that have been left on your own videos.

Click on the arrow to the top-right of any comment on YouTube to bring up a "Report Spam or Abuse" option. This enables you to report any comment for violating YouTube guidelines, whether it has been left on one of your own clips or someone else's. The YouTube Community Guidelines specifically ban hate speech, predatory behavior, stalking, threats, harassment, privacy invasion and the revealing of other members' personal information. If you report a comment, you will be prompted to leave a reason.

Open the Community section of your YouTube account from the navigation pane in the Video Manager to see comments that have been published, comments that are pending, and comments that have been automatically marked as spam by YouTube. Choose "Comment Settings" from the navigation pane and you can set approved users and blocked users, as well as configure the default settings for new videos that are uploaded.