In a surprising move, Crunchyroll has disabled the comments and removed all user-generated content from its platform and experiences. While the user ratings system remains, the ability to post any user-generated content such as comments and reviews, has been disabled. All existing user-generated content has been hidden.
The removal of the comments section across its anime and news posts came as a surprise to many, Crunchyroll does have a support page explaining its decision. The post, titled "Protecting our community," reads:
At Crunchyroll, we prioritize creating a safe and respectful community environment. To maintain this standard, we are removing all existing user-generated content, including comments, across all our platforms and experiences.
The user ratings system will, however, remain allowing you to express your opinions through star ratings.
Meanwhile, over on Reddit, a user posted a discussion they had with a Crunchyroll representative via the platform's Help Center.
"To maintain a safe, respectful, and high-quality environment for our community, we have decided to remove all existing comments and disable the ability to comment on our platforms, including comments on news articles," the representative explained. "This change helps us reduce harmful content, prevent misinformation, and improve overall user experience."
It's unclear exactly what spurred this decision, although anime YouTuber Geoff Thew theorizes that it could've been in reaction to people review-bombing the new BL anime Twighlight of Focus, which premiered on July 4th during Anime Expo weekend.
Crunchyroll is hardly the only platform to have to deal with homophobic rhetoric or deal with review-bombing. We see it happen quite frequently with Disney films and series that feature any sort of LGBTQ+ content.
While disabling comments is an easy fix for Crunchyroll, many users lamented the loss of Crunchyroll's comments. Reddit and social media are filled with users mourning the loss of the feature as comments and user-generated content as it created a sense of community within the anime platform. The comment section often acted as a forum for fans to gather and talk about new episodes of a series. In some cases, it would even help anime newcomers to decide if they should begin a show they may not be familiar with.
Although the site's rating system remains in place, which users can still use to express their general feelings on a show or series, there's no doubt that Crunchyroll has lost a sense of community. Hopefully, they can figure out a way to restore comments and implement a better-moderating system.
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