How to Work Around YouTube’s Disappearing Community Captions
Creators have many low- to no-cost options
YouTube is ditching its Community Captions functionality, and some users are not happy, saying the video platform is stripping videos of accessibility. YouTube said the community-generated subtitle feature will be retired September 28th due to common abuse and lack of use.
The trending #DontRemoveYoutubeCCs Twitter hashtag leads many to believe the video platform is removing Closed Captioning (CC), which relies on either creator-supplied or auto-generated caption text. CC, which is not affected, is used both for the hard of hearing and viewers who don’t speak the video’s native language.
YouTube says the less popular community-driven feature is going away because of “spam, abuse, and low quality submissions.” The company said both creators and viewers have reported issues. In August, fewer than 0.001% of YouTube channels used the feature, and community captions were shown on less than 0.2% of watch time during the last 30 days.
While the change may initially result in fewer views on channels that heavily rely on the feature, it can help creators build stronger relationships with their supporters.
