He's 100% Right

No long-winded intro, I actually got some sleep last night. I'm super charged right now. I'm Charles Prime. So let's just dive right in. Yesterday I covered the ongoing YouTube issue YouTubers are debating about with the reduction in views coming out of nowhere all from Judgment Day, August 10th. Post-August 10th, views took a huge decline pretty much across the board on channels and a YouTuber named Jostrive Hayes believed he found the culprit which was desktop views no longer being counted the same way they were prior.

This led to a bit of a debate between him and the Spiffing Brit where the Spiffing Brit, another huge channel, disagreed and believed that that was, you know, a bunch of malarkey, that was a bunch of fish paste. Josh Stryfe Hayes made a followup where he believed he uncovered even more evidence to support his hypothesis and believes he knows exactly the like direct root cause which is monetized views on YouTube not changing but any views that use adblock were no longer being counted

which is why all the desktop views for channels across the platform were down for the most part, but revenue stayed the same. And to get into the spaghetti and the meatballs, he is 100% right, I believe. I shared that video with people smarter than me who ended up sharing that with YouTube directly and they kindly requested to not share their direct feedback but I believe I can mention

that they confirm his hypothesis for the most part. Now right off rip I want to address one of the most popular theories about this that people were speculating on that this is YouTube getting rid of bots banishing bots to the shadow realm

because we did just see twitch do that and they took like a fucking massive hit everyone saw them get clobbered when they lost all the bots there for like a day. So people thought maybe the same thing just happened on YouTube. It does not appear to be the case.

It doesn't seem to be YouTube getting rid of bots that has caused this reduction. It does seem that Josh's hypothesis being adblock is the correct one. That is the winning racehorse here in this theory that explains why so many channels have seen a huge drop in views

specifically from desktop these channels despite seeing low computer views from august 10th onwards had not Seen a drop in revenue and I think that was the key Because that means it's likely to do with unmonetized views or adblock. However, when YouTube is watched through an adblocker, these adverts don't play. The ad revenue isn't generated, which is bad for YouTube. On screen now is an article showing a previous clash between YouTube and adblockers, written

in January 16th, 2024, referencing the November slowdown of 2023, where a change to adblocker not YouTube was the culprit for the slowdown. So YouTube and adblockers have been in an arms race for a while now, with YouTube wanting to ban ad blockers, even recently making the three strike system, you may have experienced it yourself.

Josh is right on the money. He pinned the tail on the donkey. That was the key. That was the chemical X to the Powerpuff Girls formula here. The relationship between the decrease in views having no effect on the creators revenue, it did help him get into the actual problem and that was YouTube's calculating of unmonetized views must have changed on August 10th because that's where it happens the next day. You can literally see it across so

many channels data. I think it's pretty obvious that something happened on August 10th but we don't know what the cause is exactly yet. You know, what was the reason? In the words of HubaSnack maybe the reason is you. The thing is based on Josh Trefais theory and now the whispers from the back end I think I can confidently say with a high level of certainty that the reason is the interaction between content blockers and YouTube has changed most likely from an update that was on or around August 10th. From what I'm

hearing it was most likely on the ad block side where what they use in their protocol, what they use in their list, what they changed had the side effect of that data no longer registering with YouTube's back-end so they never even received the signal in the first place which is why those views weren't recorded but since they were ad blocked views anyway they weren't monetized thus the creator revenue wasn't impacted. And it also explains why all the other

device types the views don't go down because it hasn't changed. On desktop, on your computer, you are more likely to have ad blocks installed. Also, it does explain why some creators didn't see a big reduction in views. If they are mainly creating shorts content, which most people watch while taking a shit or whatever on their phone, or if the content is catered towards a younger audience, kids aren't as likely to have an ad block installed. So some of the channels that I've seen talk about how they haven't seen any hit to their like desktop views post-August 10th. Their demographic is skewed much younger. So these kids are most likely not having an ad block installed so their views are still

monetized thus calculated the same. It explains why long form videos that have an older audience are now much lower because of the presence of an ad block. It is a pretty watertight theory and like I

mentioned it this has made its way to YouTube. The lost views were not monetized views because if they were we would have seen a reduction in revenue which we didn't. But there's a third aspect to this. YouTube have claimed they have not changed how long-form views are recorded, and I think they are telling the truth. They haven't changed how they show the data they receive. Which leads me to two possible conclusions. Either a huge amount of computer viewers all decided on

August 10th to collectively stop watching a huge amount of computer viewers all decided on August 10th to collectively stop watching a huge amount of channels all at once, which I think is remarkably unlikely, or two, the data of the views wasn't being sent to YouTube because it either didn't happen or did happen and wasn't being sent.

And I think that is exactly right. I think that is the case. I think that is the case I think YouTube is telling the truth and spiffing Britain his video mentions He talks to YouTube directly and they confirm they didn't change the way they like calculate views I don't think that's what's changed I think the back end with the ad block non monetized views are no longer even being sent to YouTube to record

I don't believe the data is making it to them. And from the little birdies I've heard talking about this internally at YouTube and everyone else I've shared this with, that does appear to be exactly the case. Now I don't know if they're going to make an official statement about this. Fingers crossed they do because clearly this is now a conversation that has reached the the eyes and ears of those at YouTube. I think it would be very good if they did.

I don't know if they will or not, but I feel like they should.

On the 11th of August, the website Tom's Guide published the article titled, YouTube Just Quietly Blocked AdBlock Plus. The Internet Hasn't Noticed Yet, But I've Found a Workaround. I believe the data I have presented, and the slew of channels affected,

highly likely points to August 10th or 11th, depending on your time zone, being days that the website YouTube and views from desktop or laptop PCs using ad blockers began to interact in an abnormal way, potentially caused by a change to either side, likely the ad block side, and this change caused YouTube to become unusable for viewers using Adblock. This prevented videos gaining the expected computer views, but lost views were not monetized anyway, which is why the creators who saw lower view counts

from PC did not see a reduction in revenue. I believe what we actually found was a small bit of digital data fallout from the software arms race between YouTube and ad blockers.

This really is an impressive investigation from Josh Strife Hayes here. So he found data to confirm that post August 10th, the next day there was apparently site wide outages for people with ad blocks reporting that they couldn't even use the site that day. So he extrapolates based on this that perhaps the culprit was the ad block made the site unusable so maybe the viewers couldn't even view the content

which is why there was such a drastic drop in views. However, I believe it's a bit deeper than that. I believe that whatever ad block change happened on or around the 10th or 11th, that made it so that way those views were no longer even being sent to YouTube to record on the back end. I don't think it was just like it's down for a day or two that's why the

views are low because if that was the case it would have trended back up but it hasn't or at least not in like a way you would expect it doesn't like go back to the the previous patterns following following in line with the normal correlation. There is actually even a public post from YouTube where they do have like a brief mention of ad block and inaccuracies of reported view counts. So on this section here about like what could cause some creators to report a drop in views

outside of like the obvious ones they point out like maybe you just blow ass like maybe you're just like a turbo dweeb and shit like that. They do have this one here with the ad blocks about how it can impact the accuracy of the view count tools. Channels whose audience include a higher portion of users utilizing such tools may see more fluctuations in traffic related to updates to these tools. Which I think is exactly what happened here. This has been

a long ongoing battle between YouTube and ad blockers. They've tried all kinds of tactics, like shaming viewers, like we see you're using an ad block. Do you want to go to hell? That kind of thing. And this appears to be just the latest development in this. This is like the fucking Krogan vs. Solarian war here.

YouTube trying to sterilize us with ads, but we're desperately pushing back to try and have the platform not be ruined by it. And now I think that what we're seeing here with this huge view drop post August 10th from desktop views is the result of ad blocks updating

and whatever update they changed on their back end caused YouTube to not record any views that were experienced from users using those tools. I don't think YouTube changed anything on their back end. I think the spiffing Brit is telling the truth

when he says that YouTube told him that they didn't change anything. I think that is honest. I don't think they did. I think it is on the ad blockers end which is something Jostreif Hayes also mentions. It appears to be that whatever they updated has now

had the unfortunate side effect of no longer having those views calculated for the channels that they watch because YouTube is not being even is not even being sent that data in the first place. It doesn't even get that signal. But anyway that's kind of the explanation for everything as I understand it and from everything that has apparently been talked about from the internals of YouTube as well. Really incredible work from Josh Strife-Hayes to get to the

bottom of this. I'm hoping the YouTube will make an official statement in regards to this because now it's become such a big conversation piece that it is even leading to like drama on the platform to a certain extent which you know is it's just it could easily be stopped if YouTube would just be you know not as tight-lipped about shit that they do have knowledge on in regards to these

kind of topics but anyway I guess we'll see if they do that's really about it kind of topics but anyway I guess we'll see if they do that's really about it yeah