YouTube's blocked words setting filters comments by what they say. You may have searched for "YouTube banned words"; in YouTube Studio the setting is called blocked words. It's the right tool when there's a particular word or phrase you don't want going straight through.

As a whole moderation policy it falls short, because all it does is match text. It can't tell what a comment means, it doesn't remember who wrote it, and it won't stop the next one that's worded differently. Rely on a list alone and you'll keep meeting comments the list never named.

How to use blocked words today

In YouTube Studio on the web, open Settings, then Community moderation, then Content controls. Add words or phrases separated by commas and save. In the YouTube Studio app, YouTube's help puts the same Content controls under Community. YouTube can change these labels, so check its help page if yours look different.

Blocked words can apply to comments, live chat and Community posts, which is useful. But wherever they apply, they act on the text and never on the person who wrote it. The same account's next comment is judged on its own words.

When a keyword list is enough

Use blocked words for things you never want in public: a slur you won't host, a spam phrase that keeps turning up, a private detail you don't want repeated. A short list of those, one that rarely changes, does its job well.

Do not ask the list to stand in for judgement. A word that is abuse in one sentence can be a quotation, a video title or an in-joke in another. A list cannot tell those apart. Lengthening the list until it matches everyday vocabulary will hide good comments and still miss the next invented spelling.

Why matching text is not the same as moderating a person

Three gaps show up quickly:

  • Meaning. The same letters can be hostility, reporting, or a joke. A list has no view of the thread.
  • Evasion. Spacing, homoglyphs and fresh phrasing walk around a stored word. YouTube's list and a local keyword rule both read the text they are given; neither promises to catch every disguise.
  • The next comment. Blocking a phrase does not change how the account's following comments are handled unless you take a separate account action.

Hiding a user from the channel is that separate action. It has nothing to do with keywords, and it isn't temporary. For comments, YouTube has no probation that ends on a date.

An illustration of the Rules screen. A keyword is one kind of rule, not the whole policy.

What The Litter Tray adds

Keyword and safe-pattern rules in the tray don't use AI credits. A keyword matches a whole word, so it won't catch the same letters inside a longer, ordinary word. A new keyword has to be at least four characters, because anything shorter matches far more than you meant. These rules don't catch spacing tricks or look-alike letters, and the rule editor says so.

A word or pattern rule that holds is always set to Test, so it asks first. Only the built-in policy's six categories can be set to Auto.

When a comment needs judgement no word list can give, a plain-language AI rule can ask you about it in Needs review before anything is held. You still decide what happens. The AI does only what the rule allows.

What this still does not do

  • It does not catch every inventive spelling or look-alike character.
  • It does not prove two accounts are the same person.
  • It does not put a viewer on probation when a word matches. Probation is a separate standing, set by you or by the setting that starts probation after comments held on Auto.
  • It does not write replies: it posts only the replies the creator writes.

See plain-language rules, AI is optional, and Test or Auto.