YouTube deprecates the channel moderateComments setting on 7 March 2024
What changed
YouTube's March 7, 2024 Data API revision is a deprecation announcement: the channel resource property brandingSettings.channel.moderateComments is deprecated, and YouTube stopped supporting it as of March 7, 2024, the same day. The property controlled whether user-submitted comments left on the channel page needed the owner's approval before they were publicly visible. The discovery document still lists it, marked deprecated.
What it means
Tools can no longer rely on brandingSettings.channel.moderateComments to read or set whether comments on a channel page need approval.
Who is affected
Community management and channel settings tools that read or write YouTube channel branding settings.
What to do by 7 Mar 2024
Stop reading or writing brandingSettings.channel.moderateComments in channels.list and channels.update.
What this means for you
YouTube channels used to have a switch that said "I want to approve comments on my channel page before anyone sees them." Apps could flip that switch for you. YouTube has turned that switch off for apps. Comments on videos are not affected by this change.
The details
- Property:
brandingSettings.channel.moderateCommentson thechannelsresource. The discovery document describes it as "Whether user-submitted comments left on the channel page need to be approved by the channel owner to be publicly visible" and marks itdeprecated: true. - Date: "YouTube will stop supporting the parameter as of March 7, 2024", the same day as the announcement.
- Context: channel discussions (comments posted to the channel itself) were removed from the API on April 30, 2024 (our entry).
- Not stated: what the API returns if the property is still sent on
channels.update.
What to do next
- Business owners: Nothing.
- Marketers and agencies: Nothing.
- Developers: Remove
moderateCommentsfrom channel settings reads and writes.
Primary sources
- YouTube Data API: Revision history (March 7, 2024)
- YouTube Data API: Channels resource
- YouTube Data API discovery document (ChannelSettings schema)
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