YouTube users, including Premium subscribers, demand “block channel” feature

YouTube‘s limited content filtering options leave users exposed to AI-generated content and unwanted channels, highlighting a growing tension between Google’s AI ambitions and user experience. The platform’s current “Don’t recommend channel” feature fails to provide comprehensive blocking capabilities, frustrating even paying Premium subscribers who seek greater control over their viewing environment.

The big picture: YouTube’s recommendation algorithm effectively suggests new content but offers no true “block channel” option, forcing users to repeatedly encounter unwanted content in search results and other areas of the platform.

• The current “Don’t recommend channel” feature only prevents suggestions on the Home page while allowing the same content to appear elsewhere.
• This limitation becomes particularly problematic as AI-generated content proliferates across the platform.

Why this matters: As AI-generated content becomes more prevalent, users lack effective tools to curate their YouTube experience against low-quality, computer-voiced videos with potentially stolen footage.

• The author highlights SimplifyTech, a channel using computer-generated voiceovers reading likely AI-generated scripts with b-roll footage apparently taken from legitimate creators.
• Such channels represent what could become a “deluge of garbage” as AI tools become easier and cheaper to use.

The contradiction: Google’s aggressive push into generative AI technology may be enabling the very content problems its users want to filter out.

• The company’s enthusiasm for AI contrasts with its failure to provide robust content filtering options.
• This disconnect is especially frustrating for YouTube Premium subscribers who pay over $20 monthly yet still lack basic content control features.

Between the lines: A “block channel” feature would empower users to customize their experience without requiring Google to make platform-wide decisions about content moderation.

• This option would allow individual users to avoid channels they personally find unhelpful or unethical.
• The absence of this feature suggests YouTube may be reluctant to provide tools that could limit exposure to any content, regardless of quality.