Does Youtube secretly throttle channels?

[samiejg]

... and if so -- is there any easy way to reverse it?

Perhaps I'm jumping to conclusions, but today I uploaded a youtube gaming short where other people in the video were cursing and using slurs. I made reference in the video to them using slurs, and censored them out (but not the curse words).

Ever since then, it seems like the traffic for all my other shorts have significantly dropped. Usually I'm getting about 5000-6000 in a 48 hour period, but now if things keep on this same pattern, I'll probably only have like 300-500 views at the 48 hour mark.

What's weird is there's no restrictions on the video -- I still have ability to change it to "made for kids". Would there be some time of "secret throttling" going on because of this one video? Or perhaps I'm just making a fuss out of nothing? It's only been like 12 hours or so since this issue started.

Not sure if it's related, but at round the same time I uploaded the video, I was also streaming (which only got a couple random viewers who left fairly fast).

 

[mathunwitting]

It's possible YouTube might adjust visibility based on content, especially if there are sensitive topics involved. Sometimes views can fluctuate for various reasons, so it might not necessarily be throttling. Give it a bit more time to see if things balance out. If concerns persist, reaching out to YouTube support could provide more clarity.

 

[PrototypeGreen]

Give some time to it! or else report on Youtube support they can reply you in 24 hours so you know what is the problem there

 

[samiejg]

It's possible YouTube might adjust visibility based on content, especially if there are sensitive topics involved. Sometimes views can fluctuate for various reasons, so it might not necessarily be throttling. Give it a bit more time to see if things balance out. If concerns persist, reaching out to YouTube support could provide more clarity.

Yeah it's only been 12 hours so I could definitely give it more time. But is there a reasonable amount of time to wait before being concerned? Also, would you have any suggestions for how I could contact Youtube Support without being a Youtube partner?

 

[samiejg]

Give some time to it! or else report on Youtube support they can reply you in 24 hours so you know what is the problem there

When I checked Youtube's support site, it made it sound like I have to be a Youtube Partner before I can contact them :|

 

[knightm]

YouTube can quietly limit a video’s reach if it picks up on sensitive content, even if no official restriction shows up. It might help to unlist that video and upload a cleaner one to see if your views start recovering.

 

[samiejg]

YouTube can quietly limit a video’s reach if it picks up on sensitive content, even if no official restriction shows up. It might help to unlist that video and upload a cleaner one to see if your views start recovering.

Ok gotcha, but it shouldn't impact the entire channel, right? I guess that's my big concern here, since my views got chopped for the entire channel. But perhaps it's a coincidence--or related to a live stream I was testing out for a couple hours--which only had a couple viewers who popped in for a few seconds. This morning the channel has been doing a little bit better.

 

[Stifmeister]

My honest opinion on both google search and youtube is that the original devs who created the whole thing and know how it works thing aren't even there anymore and the ones that are can't keep up with the enshittification of their product.

Google will never let anyone know how their algorithm works because they say it's better people don't know, imo they also don't really know, they've lost control of the wheel years ago, their core updates do the polar opposite of what they claim to aim for and then the following months they do damage control.

There's a large youtube channel that started dying about 10 years ago called the yogscast, they figured out a long time ago that the algorithm will punish your entire channel if your latest content doesn't perform as expected, thus they have been uploading the same "safe" crappy content that performs exactly the same forever now, because if they experiment, their legacy videos which bring them their money will suffer.

tl;dr - it's all RNG, the more you optimize your videos the more "rolls" you get.

 

[BLGProductions]

... and if so -- is there any easy way to reverse it?

Perhaps I'm jumping to conclusions, but today I uploaded a youtube gaming short where other people in the video were cursing and using slurs. I made reference in the video to them using slurs, and censored them out (but not the curse words).

Ever since then, it seems like the traffic for all my other shorts have significantly dropped. Usually I'm getting about 5000-6000 in a 48 hour period, but now if things keep on this same pattern, I'll probably only have like 300-500 views at the 48 hour mark.

What's weird is there's no restrictions on the video -- I still have ability to change it to "made for kids". Would there be some time of "secret throttling" going on because of this one video? Or perhaps I'm just making a fuss out of nothing? It's only been like 12 hours or so since this issue started.

Not sure if it's related, but at round the same time I uploaded the video, I was also streaming (which only got a couple random viewers who left fairly fast).

If you choose the option made for kids, mostly the video will be blocked due to swear words and everything, so keep it not for kids and yeah like the other members have mentioned upload a cleaner version and see If the views go up, or else we suggest you keep uploading videos and check if the new videos are getting low views or not or if the views go back up because as we know there are also cycles in youtune where for a few months you will get good views and then the views drop for a few months before they pick up again.