YouTube Star’s Growth Stagnating Amid Algorithm Problems, Restrictions, Censorship

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

The biggest and most popular content creators on YouTube are facing a decline in subscribers and viewers amid the platform’s algorithm problems, restrictions, and censorship.

Business Insider reports that high profile YouTubers Zoella, H3H3Productions, Philip DeFranco, DanTDM, and even PewDiePie, the platform’s most subscribed content creator, are all facing a decline in growth.

“Since January, the number of people subscribing to [PewDiePie aka Felix] Kjellberg’s channel each month has slowed,” they declared. “There’s a finite number of YouTube watchers in the world who will be interested in PewDiePie — and after seven years in operation, Kjellberg’s channel may have hit peak subscriber growth. In other words, anyone who wants to watch his videos regularly has most likely already subscribed.”

“This is fine if Kjellberg can maintain or increase his monthly views. That would mean that even though he’s hit peak subscribers, his audience is still loyal and engaged. But his monthly views are slowing, too,” Business Insider continued. “Through 2015, Kjellberg’s channel regularly hit at least 300 million views. Fast forward to October, and the picture is one of decline.”

Business Insider revealed similar results for other popular YouTube content creators, before pointing out that several YouTube content creators had reported glitches on the platform that “mysteriously” unsubscribe users from channels.

In September, it was reported that YouTube’s censorship, restrictions, demonetization, and appeals algorithm were killing content creators’ revenue, and in August, it was revealed that YouTube videos would “now be subject to the rule of the mob.”

“If enough users flag a video as ‘hate speech’ or ‘violent extremism,’ YouTube may impose restrictions on the content even if it breaks none of the platform’s rules,” reported Breitbart Tech’s Allum Bokhari. “YouTube is also planning to artificially alter its search results so that searches for ‘sensitive’ topics on YouTube no longer return the most popular videos.”

In 2016, PewDiePie even threatened to delete his YouTube channel after he accused the company of manipulating views, however, his channel is still active.

Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington and Gab @Nash, or like his page at Facebook.

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