YouTube Bug Lets Users Upload ‘Undeletable’ Explicit Content: Reports

YouTube, the world’s largest video streaming platform, which is owned by tech giant Google, recently faced a concerning issue related to content moderation. Reports suggest that some users exploited a bug on the platform that allowed them to upload explicit content, including hardcore pornography, even after their accounts were deleted.

This technique, termed as an “exploit,” enabled these so-called “YouTube hackers” to bypass the platform’s content rules. They achieved this by manipulating YouTube’s video tagging system, specifically by using a character known as a “newline,” which is rarely counted as a character by YouTube’s algorithms. By spamming millions of these newline characters in the video tags, they could effectively hide the explicit content.

In some instances, these users lifted content directly from adult websites like Pornhub and uploaded it onto YouTube. To illustrate the extent of this exploit, one user shared a text file containing 4 million newline characters in a Discord channel that shares adult content links, claiming it could be used to upload videos that were difficult to delete.

While YouTube has since fixed the bug, the challenge lies in removing the videos that were already uploaded using this technique. Although many of these videos have been taken down, YouTube acknowledges the struggle to locate and remove all the content associated with this exploit.

YouTube spokesperson Jack Malon stated, “We’re aware that a small number of videos may have remained on YouTube following a channel termination. We’re working diligently to address this issue and remove the remaining content from the platform.”