Moderating comments in many languages for customers worldwide
Ship worldwide and your comment sections turn multilingual: Portuguese under one ad, Japanese under the next, scams in Spanish. Here is how to keep them clean and answered without hiring a moderator per language.
Guides 5 min read
On this page
The moment a store ships abroad, its comment sections start speaking other languages. A Reel ad targeting Brazil fills with Portuguese questions about shipping, a TikTok that travels picks up Japanese comments, and a campaign in Germany gets replies in German that nobody on the team can read. The scams follow, often in whichever language your filters were not built for.
You do not need a moderator per language. You need to know which of your tools are language-blind, which are not, and how to answer people in their own language without guessing.
Word lists do not travel
Every platform's native filter is a word list:
- Facebook hides comments containing words you choose, and a profanity filter based on "the most commonly reported words and phrases marked offensive by the community" (Meta Business Help: about moderation for Pages).
- Instagram and Threads have Hidden Words, with your own list of "words, phrases, numbers or emojis" (Instagram Help: hide comments).
- TikTok has a keyword filter in the app (TikTok Support: manage comments) and blocked words on ad accounts, up to 500 per account (TikTok, blocked words).
- YouTube has a blocked-words list in its channel comment settings (YouTube Help: comment settings).
A word list only knows the words on it. "Giveaway" does not catch "sorteio", "sorteo" or "プレゼント企画". To cover five markets with lists alone, you need every scam word, slur and competitor nickname in five languages, with each language's misspellings, and on TikTok you run out of room at 500.
So keep lists for the few things that are the same in every language: your competitors' brand names, lookalike store domains and the handles of accounts that impersonate you. Everything else needs something that understands meaning.
Scams do not stay in English
Scam comments are usually translated from the same few scripts: a fake winner, a fake support account, a fake discount, a work-from-home pitch. Expect them in every language you advertise in:
- Spanish: "¡Felicidades! Ganaste un par gratis, reclámalo en el enlace de mi perfil."
- Portuguese: "Parabéns, você foi sorteado! Chama no direct para receber."
- French: a competitor plug, "Les mêmes chez StrideCo pour moitié prix."
The same judgement applies in every language: fake winners, fake support accounts and competitor plugs are hidden; honest complaints are answered. A moderator who cannot read the comment cannot apply that judgement, which is why untranslated comments tend to pile up untouched.
Answer in the language they asked in
A shopper who asks in Portuguese and gets an answer in English learns that you do not really sell to them. A short, correct answer in their language does the opposite.
- Answer in the commenter's language, even if your ad was in English.
- Keep answers short and factual. Shipping time, cost, returns. Short sentences survive translation better than jokes and idioms.
- Use local facts. Delivery times to Brazil, whether duties are included for the UK, the size conversion for Japan. The facts matter more than the fluency.
- Read before you send. If you use a translation tool or a draft, read it back in English. A translated reply that promises free returns you do not offer is worse than no reply.
Here is what that looks like, from our sample brand Wildermere:
| Comment | Reply |
|---|---|
| Vocês entregam no Brasil? | Entregamos, sim! Pedidos para o Brasil chegam em 7 a 10 dias úteis. |
| 日本への発送はありますか？ | はい、日本にも発送しています。通常7〜10営業日でお届けします。 |
| Gibt es die auch in Größe 46? | Ja, die Ridgeline gibt es in Größe 46, auch in weiter Passform. |
Write your policies once, for every market
The hard part of multilingual replies is not the language, it is the facts. Write down, once, what is true in each market you sell to:
- Shipping times and costs per country or region: the US, Canada, the UK, the EU, Australia, Brazil, Japan.
- Duties and taxes: included or paid on delivery.
- Returns: window, who pays shipping, and whether international returns work differently.
- Sizing: the conversion you recommend between US, UK, EU and Japanese sizes.
- Support hours in the time zones you promise.
Keep it in English. Replies can be written in any language from facts written in one. Our comment guidelines template has a section for exactly this.
Staff the hours, not the languages
Selling worldwide changes when comments arrive as much as which languages they arrive in. A Reel ad running in Japan collects its busiest hour while a team in New York is asleep, and an ad in Australia does the same to a team in Los Angeles. A question answered eight hours later has usually lost its buyer, and a scam left up overnight has had a full day of readers somewhere.
Three habits help:
- Check each market in its own morning. Open the ads for Japan and Australia at the end of your day, and the ads for the UK and the EU at the start of it.
- Let the routine run on its own overnight. Scams, spam and questions you have already answered once do not need a person awake. Save the judgement calls for the morning.
- Say your support hours in your answers, with the time zone: "Our team is online 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern, and we reply to every message." It sets expectations in every market.
Emoji and slang travel across languages, too. A comment that is only a row of fire emoji is praise almost everywhere; a comment that is only a link is suspicious in any language.
Pay attention to what your team cannot read
The riskiest comments in a multilingual section are the ones nobody on the team understands. A chargeback threat in Italian, a safety complaint in Dutch or a journalist's question in French looks like any other foreign comment until someone translates it. Make sure every comment can be read in English before anyone decides to hide it or leave it, and that the judgement calls reach a person no matter what language they arrive in.
Many languages in CommentGate
CommentGate reads comments in any language, on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Threads, posts and ads alike.
- The same switches in every language. Scams, spam, hate and competitor plugs are hidden whether they are written in English, Spanish or Japanese.
- Replies in their language. A question in Portuguese gets a drafted answer in Portuguese, written from your notes. You approve it, edit it, or let clear answers send on their own.
- Everything readable in English. Any comment can be read translated into English before you act on it.
- More careful where it matters. It is most confident in English, so it asks about unclear comments in other languages a little more often, and those wait in Needs you instead of being guessed.
Every correction teaches it, in any language. See the full feature list, or how CommentGate compares with other tools, some of which cover only English on their entry plans.
