YouTube has just announced today that the company is about to start purging fake subscribers from the platform this week.
According to YouTube,
on Dec. 13-14, creators “may see a noticeable decrease” in subscriber
counts.
The Google-owned video service regularly works to verify the the legitimacy of accounts and its purge of spammy and bogus users has led
to steep declines in sub counts in the past.
Even if a channel did not intentionally acquire spam subscribers, they
may have acquired some as a result of the actions of other channels.
YouTube users will be notified in the next few days if their account was affected by fake subscribers.
YouTube users will be notified in the next few days if their account was affected by fake subscribers.
If that’s the case, those creators will
see a note from YouTube in the Creator Studio.
Channels around 1,000
subscribers who fall below the threshold for the YouTube Partner Program due to this fake subscriber purge will need to reapply once they’ve reached that total once again.
In addition, in the third quarter, YouTube said it deleted 7.85 million videos (81% of which were first detected by automated systems) for violations of its guidelines prohibiting spam and adult content as well as “low-volume areas” like violent extremism and child exploitation. YouTube also removed over 224 million comments for violating community guidelines, most of which were for spam.
“Channels that had a high percentage of spam and fall below 1,000 subscribers will no longer meet the minimum requirement for YPP [YouTube Partner Program] and will be removed from the program,” the blog post reads. “They are encouraged to reapply once they’ve rebuilt their subscribers organically.”
Owners of affected channels will see a banner in YouTube Studio or Classic Creator Studio.
In addition, in the third quarter, YouTube said it deleted 7.85 million videos (81% of which were first detected by automated systems) for violations of its guidelines prohibiting spam and adult content as well as “low-volume areas” like violent extremism and child exploitation. YouTube also removed over 224 million comments for violating community guidelines, most of which were for spam.
“Channels that had a high percentage of spam and fall below 1,000 subscribers will no longer meet the minimum requirement for YPP [YouTube Partner Program] and will be removed from the program,” the blog post reads. “They are encouraged to reapply once they’ve rebuilt their subscribers organically.”
Owners of affected channels will see a banner in YouTube Studio or Classic Creator Studio.
