I’m having my comments I made the past few days receive zero engagements. It’s not just me losing the early bird lottery too; my replies to a highly engaged comment has zero likes, while several comments immediately after me has double digits. It’s nothing incendiary at all, just normal people’s comments. But something just tripped the enigmatic AI and thenceforth I’m shadow banned.
Why you should know this?
Because YouTube is being a thought police between creators and their communities. It feels to me like 99.999% of creators on YouTube have no idea that this is happening, that honest to goodness people’s engagements are never going to reach them on the platform; they’re being silently silenced, by an AI that is figuratively a black box.
Look at this screenshot. If that’s not damning evidence you tell me what is.
The comment is straight up gone when viewing with a logged out tab. I’m definitely 100% shadow banned right now.
Unlike their YT career, that degree course will probably be there in five years. It’ll be more expensive, but it’s not gone forever or anything like that. For some opportunities you really have to strike while the iron is hot. For the record, I’m a HS teacher and I’ve had the “so you want to be a YouTuber for a living” conversation with countless students over the years, including with my own child. But for someone who’s starting to get some traction, and wants to take time off of school to see where it leads them, I think it’s an understandable move.