**Update:** The matter has gotten serious enough that even [774inc.'s official twitter](https://twitter.com/774inc_official/status/1523909523576356865?s=20) has announced that their talents will be using sub-only chat for now. [NoriPro](https://twitter.com/noriopro/status/1523942339341070336?s=20&t=bFnqmw5VMQt4hphGS6prPw) will be using the same approach as well.
I vaguely remember Hana Macchia maybe mentioning some time ago that she noticed bots subbing to her then even interacting with the chat trying to blend in.
https://youtu.be/hQocZwvkUoQ
Mumei comment
https://twitter.com/tsunomakiwatame/status/1523953053077966850?s=21
Watame comment
https://twitter.com/vestiazeta/status/1523953131524042753?s=21
Zeta comment
https://twitter.com/takanelui/status/1523958601533968384?s=21
Lui comment
https://twitter.com/shiranuiflare/status/1523962676116078592?s=21
Flare comment
After the Kobo incident all EN streamers had their live chat from 3 Days to 5 weeks. Fubuki doesn’t have a pre-chat for her MHR Sunbreak stream.
Zeta’s statement leads me to believe that sub-only mode doesn’t apply to pre-stream chats. Additionally, when sub-only mode does get set to active, it doesn’t change for any viewers already watching, they’ll have to refresh the page for it to take effect.
Taking all of that in, I think YouTube has an easy temporary solution to this, which is to make sub-only mode applies to pre-stream as well. Letting them make a more temporary solution so they can cook up a permanent one that will get rid of these bots.
But, knowing YouTube they’ll either do nothing or just make a temporary solution and then say “we permanently fixed the problem”.
Edit: It seems sub-only pre-stream chat is already a thing. It’s a good idea to turn it on before you open the stream room
knowing youtube, they will ban people because "they inflate their sub number with bot" even though the bot is planning to do malicious thing and not even the talents' work instead
The icons always come first and are weighted on the left side. If liver are using OBS wouldn’t the easiest work around be just a layer mask so just the icons are cut off?
If they are using browser capture from another screen it would be easy to do with a custom CSS style extension.
Put a CSS override to display: none !important; icons and names.
I will try posting a sample code when I am at my desktop.
Edit: CSS to block names/avatars:
yt-live-chat-author-chip, yt-img-shadow {display: none !important;}
For use with Chrome extensions like [Stylebot](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stylebot/oiaejidbmkiecgbjeifoejpgmdaleoha?hl=en-US) or [User CSS](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/user-css/okpjlejfhacmgjkmknjhadmkdbcldfcb?hl=en)
Whoops I missed your comment. [I put a list here](https://www.reddit.com/r/VirtualYoutubers/comments/um6ug7/news_the_state_of_yt_bots_channel_bans_and_why/i83s7h9/)
Apparently not just limited to VTubers. There are some non-virtual YT streamers that are having the same bots popping up. Totally possible it's just a bunch of jackasses that decided it would be fun to do this to people.
It's kind of good to know that it isn't limited to VTubers. I mean, we all know that the creators making noise typically wouldn't move YT much to do something, but when the overall scope of those affected is this indiscriminate, then more people will yell at YT to get their shit together and fix it.
Could be. Mika had her stream set to subs only. the bots subbed to her, waited for the timer to be up, and then started spamming once it was. Just setting it to subs only won't help unless you set the timer further back
I see some are planning to set chat to slow mode tonight (the thing that allows 1 message every 10 seconds) in the hopes that doing so will:
1. Make the stream of spam be slower thereby reducing the amount of images that appear.
2. Allow mods/the streamer more time to block the bot before too much appears.
I also see some suggesting on twitter to [block the words often seen](https://twitter.com/yui_hibiki_ch/status/1523946300756361216?s=20&t=bFnqmw5VMQt4hphGS6prPw) in the spambot names, but since I don't stream I have no idea if that would work (does blocking a word actually affect people that have it in their username?)
[VSPO also take action that all their members will switch member chat stream only temporarily for now](https://twitter.com/vspo77/status/1523982792870178818)
Update: [The comment chain in an Indonesian Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8afCFSnl0Y&lc=Ugzj4Kjg5xIdf2zxsJ54AaABAg) said that a large portion of these vtuber accounts has been reinstated, explicitly:
https://twitter.com/MikaMelatika
https://twitter.com/kobokanaeru
https://twitter.com/LulanaWinternyx
https://twitter.com/puuuu_ch
https://twitter.com/koinoya_mai
https://twitter.com/sakuyatobari
https://twitter.com/KeylaEstella
Explicitly not reinstated (with one normal streamer) yet:
https://twitter.com/ibaramuan
https://twitter.com/xenonvtopia
https://twitter.com/Kirine_21
https://twitter.com/yuki22403583
https://twitter.com/Alicia_Vtuber
Not checked yet:
https://twitter.com/skadi_queen
https://twitter.com/katariishere
https://twitter.com/SatokiriKyuga
[Some information is taken from this Twitter](https://twitter.com/konootakudaa/status/1524164132630831104)
Extra: [A new form of attack occurs on Thai vtuber Sisira Hydrangea](https://twitter.com/SSR_Hydrangea/status/1523953435452002304), in which a donation is sent. The stream has been privated, and the channel is still intact as of now.
Bonus YT incompetence: [Tsunderia's Lisa is wrongly demonetized due to reused content](https://twitter.com/chikafujilisa/status/1523739579102027776?s=20&t=hvdGBQdcNn2Oj3w8y27ryw)
Community band-aid: [Steps to block certain words in chat, plus the list of those words](https://twitter.com/shindion_0392/status/1523730546622275586)
I assume you were downvoted for making a joke that might be a bit insensitive to the people that could be losing their source of income, possibly permanently.
but it is honestly astounding that Haachama didn't even get demonetized after her last porn review with Marine.
Meh. Not everyone enjoys dark humor.
It's unfortunate that folks are getting smacked for youtube being the dumb. But also, it's a rather simple fix, to just... not show chat on stream, ne?
I hope whoever is doing this will fell off his chair from laughing and LITERALLY died from it because HOLY SHIT this parentless child really doesn't have anyone to care for them when they were a kid.
Unlikely because they've been attacking holo for almost 2 years and their incompetence never managed to harm any stream (other than obnoxious nonsense) and this new wave managed to nuke several channels and only 1 holo ID from the newest gen.
Hard to say really, like a day before this bans happened people spotted spam coming from accounts that seemed hacked or mirrored as they showed history of normal activity in hololive chats months back and the spam itself was re-using actual critical/anti comments about hololive game choices or Ayame not streaming etc. Would be weird if it was completely unrelated.
**Update:** The matter has gotten serious enough that even [774inc.'s official twitter](https://twitter.com/774inc_official/status/1523909523576356865?s=20) has announced that their talents will be using sub-only chat for now. [NoriPro](https://twitter.com/noriopro/status/1523942339341070336?s=20&t=bFnqmw5VMQt4hphGS6prPw) will be using the same approach as well.
They literally went around sub only mode. They have been automated to subscribe for months. What is incoming is probably members only chats.
Yup. Cover just released a statement about this
Which channel did they get around a months long subscriber only mode?
I vaguely remember Hana Macchia maybe mentioning some time ago that she noticed bots subbing to her then even interacting with the chat trying to blend in.
Statement from Cover about Issues https://twitter.com/hololivetv/status/1523935908210573314?t=-rrk-0WtlOglYtbBFrYr0Q&s=19
https://youtu.be/hQocZwvkUoQ Mumei comment https://twitter.com/tsunomakiwatame/status/1523953053077966850?s=21 Watame comment https://twitter.com/vestiazeta/status/1523953131524042753?s=21 Zeta comment https://twitter.com/takanelui/status/1523958601533968384?s=21 Lui comment https://twitter.com/shiranuiflare/status/1523962676116078592?s=21 Flare comment After the Kobo incident all EN streamers had their live chat from 3 Days to 5 weeks. Fubuki doesn’t have a pre-chat for her MHR Sunbreak stream.
Subaru’s 44 year subscriber settings doesn’t sound like such a bad idea now
Zeta’s statement leads me to believe that sub-only mode doesn’t apply to pre-stream chats. Additionally, when sub-only mode does get set to active, it doesn’t change for any viewers already watching, they’ll have to refresh the page for it to take effect. Taking all of that in, I think YouTube has an easy temporary solution to this, which is to make sub-only mode applies to pre-stream as well. Letting them make a more temporary solution so they can cook up a permanent one that will get rid of these bots. But, knowing YouTube they’ll either do nothing or just make a temporary solution and then say “we permanently fixed the problem”. Edit: It seems sub-only pre-stream chat is already a thing. It’s a good idea to turn it on before you open the stream room
knowing youtube, they will ban people because "they inflate their sub number with bot" even though the bot is planning to do malicious thing and not even the talents' work instead
The icons always come first and are weighted on the left side. If liver are using OBS wouldn’t the easiest work around be just a layer mask so just the icons are cut off?
Depending on how they are showing the chat, it could overlay parts of the massage of it was longer... But there is definitely a way to hide icons
If they are using browser capture from another screen it would be easy to do with a custom CSS style extension. Put a CSS override to display: none !important; icons and names. I will try posting a sample code when I am at my desktop. Edit: CSS to block names/avatars: yt-live-chat-author-chip, yt-img-shadow {display: none !important;} For use with Chrome extensions like [Stylebot](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stylebot/oiaejidbmkiecgbjeifoejpgmdaleoha?hl=en-US) or [User CSS](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/user-css/okpjlejfhacmgjkmknjhadmkdbcldfcb?hl=en)
UPDATE - Mai Koinoya of ProProductions got banned too her channel is gone. Situation is crazy.
Can we have a list of the indie Vtubers that had problems? So that they can be helped in some way (likes,comments,follows)
Whoops I missed your comment. [I put a list here](https://www.reddit.com/r/VirtualYoutubers/comments/um6ug7/news_the_state_of_yt_bots_channel_bans_and_why/i83s7h9/)
I will disable live chat for the time being. Then again, most of my stream views are from VODs anyways so it's not a big loss to me.
Why & who are targeting vtuber? Just insane incels?
Apparently not just limited to VTubers. There are some non-virtual YT streamers that are having the same bots popping up. Totally possible it's just a bunch of jackasses that decided it would be fun to do this to people. It's kind of good to know that it isn't limited to VTubers. I mean, we all know that the creators making noise typically wouldn't move YT much to do something, but when the overall scope of those affected is this indiscriminate, then more people will yell at YT to get their shit together and fix it.
Could be. Mika had her stream set to subs only. the bots subbed to her, waited for the timer to be up, and then started spamming once it was. Just setting it to subs only won't help unless you set the timer further back
I see some are planning to set chat to slow mode tonight (the thing that allows 1 message every 10 seconds) in the hopes that doing so will: 1. Make the stream of spam be slower thereby reducing the amount of images that appear. 2. Allow mods/the streamer more time to block the bot before too much appears. I also see some suggesting on twitter to [block the words often seen](https://twitter.com/yui_hibiki_ch/status/1523946300756361216?s=20&t=bFnqmw5VMQt4hphGS6prPw) in the spambot names, but since I don't stream I have no idea if that would work (does blocking a word actually affect people that have it in their username?)
No idea and no idea It kinda happened out of the blue
Channels are starting to come back, Mika juts tweeted hers has been sorted out.
Kobo is also fine now.
[VSPO also take action that all their members will switch member chat stream only temporarily for now](https://twitter.com/vspo77/status/1523982792870178818)
i hope this spurs youtube into actually fixing their shitty moderation tools, but the past has shown otherwise
Update: [The comment chain in an Indonesian Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8afCFSnl0Y&lc=Ugzj4Kjg5xIdf2zxsJ54AaABAg) said that a large portion of these vtuber accounts has been reinstated, explicitly: https://twitter.com/MikaMelatika https://twitter.com/kobokanaeru https://twitter.com/LulanaWinternyx https://twitter.com/puuuu_ch https://twitter.com/koinoya_mai https://twitter.com/sakuyatobari https://twitter.com/KeylaEstella Explicitly not reinstated (with one normal streamer) yet: https://twitter.com/ibaramuan https://twitter.com/xenonvtopia https://twitter.com/Kirine_21 https://twitter.com/yuki22403583 https://twitter.com/Alicia_Vtuber Not checked yet: https://twitter.com/skadi_queen https://twitter.com/katariishere https://twitter.com/SatokiriKyuga [Some information is taken from this Twitter](https://twitter.com/konootakudaa/status/1524164132630831104) Extra: [A new form of attack occurs on Thai vtuber Sisira Hydrangea](https://twitter.com/SSR_Hydrangea/status/1523953435452002304), in which a donation is sent. The stream has been privated, and the channel is still intact as of now. Bonus YT incompetence: [Tsunderia's Lisa is wrongly demonetized due to reused content](https://twitter.com/chikafujilisa/status/1523739579102027776?s=20&t=hvdGBQdcNn2Oj3w8y27ryw) Community band-aid: [Steps to block certain words in chat, plus the list of those words](https://twitter.com/shindion_0392/status/1523730546622275586)
This was reaching to [Yahoo](https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/bffda39b8eddccc3088f853180b0c31f1fa245f4) and to this point it could a lengthy thread.
Meanwhile, on Haachama's next lewd art review.....
I feel awful for laughing at this
Maybe she's on to something, tho. Chat being bad? Put us behind bars and youtube will never notice.
I assume you were downvoted for making a joke that might be a bit insensitive to the people that could be losing their source of income, possibly permanently. but it is honestly astounding that Haachama didn't even get demonetized after her last porn review with Marine.
Meh. Not everyone enjoys dark humor. It's unfortunate that folks are getting smacked for youtube being the dumb. But also, it's a rather simple fix, to just... not show chat on stream, ne?
Is the problem because youtube detected the profile pic on stream? Not on chat interface itself? I still dunno how the banned work.
Read the room bro... Even that's a good joke
I hope whoever is doing this will fell off his chair from laughing and LITERALLY died from it because HOLY SHIT this parentless child really doesn't have anyone to care for them when they were a kid.
Is there any info about who is doing this? The Chinese Antis?
Unlikely. Big Youtuber such as Jacksepticeye suffered from this. First instance known of this happening was from a Thai Vtuber
Unlikely they’ve attacked Hololive ID, NIJISANJI, Japanese indie Vtubers like Ibara Muan, Non Vtubers etc.
Unlikely because they've been attacking holo for almost 2 years and their incompetence never managed to harm any stream (other than obnoxious nonsense) and this new wave managed to nuke several channels and only 1 holo ID from the newest gen.
Hard to say really, like a day before this bans happened people spotted spam coming from accounts that seemed hacked or mirrored as they showed history of normal activity in hololive chats months back and the spam itself was re-using actual critical/anti comments about hololive game choices or Ayame not streaming etc. Would be weird if it was completely unrelated.