YouTube’s recommendation algorithm is incredibly aggressive. If you watch a single video about a specific video game or a controversial news topic, your homepage will instantly be flooded with dozens of similar videos from creators you have never heard of. If a specific channel produces clickbait content, spreads misinformation, or is simply annoying, seeing their thumbnails constantly appear in your feed is frustrating.
While you cannot technically “block” a channel from existing on the platform, YouTube provides a powerful tool to banish a channel from your personal algorithm, ensuring their videos never appear on your homepage or in your recommended feed again.
How to “Block” a Channel from Your Feed (Desktop & Mobile)
This process is identical whether you are using a web browser on a computer or the YouTube app on your smartphone.
- Open YouTube and navigate to your Homepage or the “Up Next” sidebar where the offending video is recommended.
- Do not click the video itself. Instead, hover your mouse over the video thumbnail (or look directly below it on mobile).
- Locate the three vertical dots (the menu icon) positioned next to the video title.
- Click or tap those three dots to open a dropdown menu.
- Select the option labeled “Don’t recommend channel” (it usually has a circle with a slash icon next to it).
The video thumbnail will instantly vanish, replaced by a message stating, “We won’t recommend videos from this channel to you again.” You can click “Undo” immediately if you made a mistake, but otherwise, that creator is permanently scrubbed from your algorithm.
The Difference Between “Not Interested” and “Don’t Recommend Channel”
When you click the three dots, you will see two very similar options. Choosing the correct one is vital.
- “Not Interested”: This tells the algorithm you dislike the topic of the specific video. If you click this on a Minecraft video, YouTube will stop showing you Minecraft videos, but it might still recommend a different video from that exact same creator tomorrow if they play a different game.
- “Don’t Recommend Channel”: This is the nuclear option for the creator. It ignores the topic entirely and blacklists the channel itself. No matter what that creator posts, you will never see it on your homepage.
How to Block a User from Commenting on Your Videos
The method above cleans up your homepage feed. However, if you are a creator yourself and a specific user is leaving abusive, spammy, or harassing comments on your videos, you must block them at the channel level. This is a true block.
- Click on the username of the person leaving the harassing comments to visit their channel page.
- On their channel page, look at the menu bar under their banner (Home, Videos, Playlists, etc.) and click on About.
- On the right side of the “About” page, look for the small Flag icon. Click it.
- Select Block user from the dropdown menu.
- A confirmation box will appear stating that this user will no longer be able to comment on your videos. Click Submit.
This is a “shadowban.” The blocked user can still watch your videos, and they can even type out new comments, but those comments will be completely invisible to you and to everyone else on the internet.