Can you see this?

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:02]All right. Well, I feel weird doing a video on something like this when there is truly so much going on in the world, but I also think it's important that we talk about what's happening right here on YouTube because there is something happening. Uh I'm not sure what's causing it, but we you can just see on the channels that you typically watch that views are down. Now, views are down. There could be multiple reasons why that's happening. But what I do know is that the content that I'm showing on this channel is no different than the content I was showing a month ago, two months ago, 3 months ago. And yet these are down about for me anywhere from 30 to 50%. And there is data in these videos that show that there is something happening when it comes to who YouTube is showing my videos to. Okay. Now, I do have from just subscribers here, I have folks saying that they're just not seeing my videos. Here is one person here saying, "Read your last comment. I'm subscribed, but you still don't pop up that often in my algorithm. And someone else wrote here, "Bruh, your channel is getting suppressed. It was so hard to find your video."

[00:01:27]Now, I think there's a couple of things that's happening here.

[00:01:31]It could be a seasonal thing where, you know, it is nice out and perhaps I hate hate to hear it, but people are out enjoying their day and they're not wanting to go to YouTube. Did you hear that alarm? Did you hear that alarm?

[00:01:46]It's the police. They're coming to arrest me. They're coming to arrest me.

[00:01:50]But it could be that people are um out enjoying their day. There's just fewer people um watching YouTube videos. That could be uh potentially what it is. Um, it could be that there is some system in place on YouTube that is um that they're unaware of that is making it so that folks who are on the left are just not being shown as often. And it could also be that I don't know that there is um something happening with the videos on the left that is just not happening on the right. Now, if you go to right-leaning channels, you will see that folks on the right are not being suppressed. Their videos are being shown to people who want to see them. Now, from what I understand, YouTube is saying that the systems are working as they want, and it could be that people are getting sick of the topics and blah blah blah blah blah. But I don't think that's the case because the videos that we're releasing are being there's people that they're being shown to are clicking on them. But I think and this is where I think the data is interesting.

[00:03:07]It's that the people are not even getting an opportunity to see it. So, come with me into the weeds of YouTube analytics. But here is what a typical video will look like. That's that um does exactly what you'd expect. So what happens is that folks are who are subscribed typically gets seen a video first and then it gets shown to more and more people those who are subscribed and aren't subscribed and it goes wider and wider and wider until YouTube feels like the audience who wants to see that video has seen it. And when that happens it usually ends up with something like this.

[00:03:50]51% of the people who watched it were not subscribed. 47% were subscribed. But what we're seeing now in the analytics is we have as you see here oh only only 25% of the people who saw this video weren't subscribed and YouTube showed it mainly to people who are subscribed and that I think is what is contributing to lower video views and that again here we're seeing uh where this video is shown to 75% of the people who are subscribed and 22% of folks who were not subscribed only saw the video.

[00:04:34]Um, and then one video here where it was a little bit better where 65% weren't subscribed or were subscribed and 34% weren't subscribed. But again, like the way this typically works when everything's working well is it usually works out to be a very even distribution like this where if you're subscribed, you see it. If you're not subscribed, you still see it. But for whatever reason, YouTube is only mainly showing the videos right now to folks who are subscribed, who are not subscribed. So, that is where I want to leave you with some tips on how you can help. At least if you're seeing this video, I don't know if you're going to see it, but if you are seeing this video and you're not subscribed, well, the data shows if you want to see my videos, the best thing you can do to see one of my videos is to hit subscribe. Now, the second best thing you can do is hit the bell icon.

[00:05:31]There's a bell icon. And what happens is if you click into that and you turn on all, that means whenever I upload a video, YouTube will give you a notification.

[00:05:42]Now, another way that you can make sure that you see my content is by liking the videos. Hitting like does tell YouTube you like these videos. Commenting helps YouTube know that you want more videos like this. But this is part of the problem with um systems set up by algorithms is that, you know, 1.3 million of you subscribe to me, but I don't get to decide whether or not you see me. And so there is um there is some distance between me and you, the viewer.

[00:06:15]Now, I've been we've been through these types of um droughts before. I don't believe there's someone at YouTube being like, "Let's just turn the liberal channels down a little bit and let's turn up the rightwing." I don't think anyone's doing that. But I do think that there is something happening.

[00:06:36]And so my job now is to make sure that we have this community and that um and that I have control over the audience.

[00:06:47]And so I'm working with my team now to figure out the best way to make sure that there is less and less friction between what I say and when you get it.

[00:06:59]And so I think what we're probably looking at is either setting up a Patreon or really investing in Substack to make sure that regardless of what happens, if YouTube were to crash tomorrow or if Donald Trump were to sue us or whatever, the channel would get deleted that we're still here fighting the fight, good fight, and you can still um we can still connect with each other. And when things like this happen, it really makes me realize that, wow, um though we have an audience here, we don't really get to control the audience. And so, it's a wakeup call for me and the team that we've got to put some systems in place and get smarter about um how we run this thing moving forward. Because you know it can be scary when you are doing everything right and yet the systems in place are preventing you from connecting to the audience who want to see you. And so I've been getting a lot of comments saying Keith I'm not seeing you. I'm not seeing you saying well we're doing what we can. We're doing what we can and we are going to in the future have a solution for this. So please do stay tuned for that. But again, the best thing you can do right now, if you're seeing this, let me know you're seeing it. Hit like. Um, subscribe if you're not subscribed. And this has happened before. My hope is that this is just a temporary problem and things will get better. But, um, there certainly is a problem right now.

[00:08:37]So, we need to recognize it. Um, want to let you know about it and please, if you do see this, engage with it and make sure more people are able to see it, too. Um, we're going to be watching this and um, please do do stay tuned um, as we figure out how to best make sure that we are protecting ourselves from um, protecting our community and ourselves moving forward. All right, thanks and I'll see you soon. Bye.