[yorwba]

> abuse the mod button

If someone insults them in the comments and they report it, are they even abusing the system or are they using the reporting mechanism as intended?

[throwaway_pdp09]

I guess they're using it as intended there. But if they're using it because they don't like factual anti-china criticism, that's abuse.

[shadowgovt]

It depends. YouTube's comment section doesn't have a particular editorial purpose, the closest thing it has to a mission is letting people comment on each other's videos for some vague sense of "community."

That's not an objective fact-oriented mission, and a moderation system that allows users to flag and kill comments that make them feel bad is still satisfying the constraints of the design.