YouTube’s most well known vLogger, PewDiePie, is threatening to close his channel, after claiming the site is unsubscribing his fans without their consent and favouring ‘clickbait’ over quality content.
The vLogger, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, claims YouTube is pushing rival clickbait videos towards users rather than the channels they’ve actively subscribed to.
“All I want is that the people that subscribe to me watch my videos,” he says in the 10-minute piece-to-camera.
He goes on to accuse YouTube of promoting “videos that have nothing to do with personality, has nothing to do with content, just has a really great title and a really great thumbnail.”
PewDiePie has previously actively worked for the Google-owned platform producing premium content for its YouTube Red service.
The Sweden-based YouTuber PewDiePie maintained that subscribers are unsubscribed for no reason and he blames this on a conspiracy being hatched at YouTube. He cited a newly implemented algorithm as the means to this end.
The popular YouTuber also pointed out that his “suggested video” traffic also took a beating last November. For him, it reinforces the possibility that powers-that-be at YouTube are intentionally sabotaging their way in pursuing a shift away from creator or personality-based content.
“YouTube wants to kill my channel,” he stressed. “I’ve decided the only way to stop my channel from dying — I know you are going to think I am joking — but I am going to delete my channel.”
In response, YouTube issued a statement addressing the charges.
“We’ve done an extensive review and found there have been no decreases in creators’ subscriber numbers beyond what normally happens when viewers either unsubscribe from a creator’s channel or when YouTube removes spammed subscribers,” a spokesperson said. “We do the latter to ensure that all creator subscriber numbers are accurate.”
In a Twitter post, PewDiePie claimed that YouTube has reached out to him. No details have been provided save for the claim that it is digging into the matter. YouTube has also said that it is just normal to see fluctuations in the number of channel subscribers.
View his video below (Warning: strong language)