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As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question, is YouTube Shadow Banning this channel? I actually found this via Aaron Clarey, it came to my attention, I'm a big believer in credit where credit is due, I follow Mr. Clarey on Twitter and I found this via his, I think it's from Disclose TV but I found it via his Twitter, so I'll put a link in the description below over to him. That said, quoting directly: "The company terminated channels" - and this is YouTube - quoting: "The company terminated channels for repeatedly violating its Community Guidelines on elections integrity content through 2023 and COVID-19 content through 2024." Yeah, just a side note on this. My decision to not monetize this channel I always felt like was quite vindicated during COVID because we just kept doing what we were doing, and frankly I was - I don't mean to be boastful or anything - but I was kind of a lone voice in the dark, especially out here in Southeast Asia, in the pits of what I would call the COVID debacle for lack of a better term,  so I felt kind of good about that, but yeah, there were a lot of people that lost a lot during the COVID thing. That said, quoting further: "Today YouTube's Community guidelines allow for a wider range of content regarding COVID-19 and elections integrity." Well that's not anything, that is not unfettered speech, is it? Quoting further: "Reflecting the Company's commitment to free expression, YouTube will provide an opportunity for all creators to rejoin the platform if the Company terminated their channels for repeated violations of COVID-19 and elections integrity policies that are no longer in effect. YouTube values conservative voices" - do they? do they? I notice they had to like specify 'conservative voices' – “on its platform and recognizes that these creators have extensive reach and play an important role in civic discourse. The Company recognizes these creators are among those shaping today's online consumption, landing "must watch" interviews, giving viewers the chance to hear directly from politicians, celebrities, Business Leaders and more." 

You know though, I have got to be honest with you, I've been watching my channel and the metrics on it, well my channel, the firm's channel here, over the past roughly the last 3-5 days, and yeah I know there has been some stuff, especially folks don't really like my discussions on things like the DTV or the LTR or work authorization sometimes, but I have noticed ever since I did a video about my thoughts on the possibility that Thailand was effectively under attack from financial institutions, yeah there has been a noticeable, you sort of see the normal arc of viewership and then it like dog legs and just kind of goes sideways. I have to wonder if this channel is under some form of Shadow Ban, it wouldn't be the first time, kind of one of the reasons I have it set up the way that I do. I have never been completely driven by the algorithm, and I never will be. I am going to talk about what I want to talk about on here and I want to talk about things that are pertinent to the expat Community which we are in a niche. I do understand that, and also in the past 2 months, there has been a lot of stuff going on in Thailand that piqued the interest of a lot of people in a way that isn't normally piqued and as a result, I think I had major spikes in viewership that has kind of died off a little bit. 

Now that being said, again I do really truly wonder if I am being Shadow Banned in many different ways because I see other people, especially folks that I can tell are basically copying my content and basically repackaging stuff that I have done, oftentimes with AI and things, and then they get tens if not hundreds of thousands of views. I also have serious questions about some of these view counts and who exactly, hundreds of thousands of people are watching videos about the Thai Retirement Visa at any given moment?  Maybe in a one-off, but having done this for almost a decade now, I have a hard time believing that. 

At the end of the day, the one nice thing I guess about being Shadow Banned and sort of not monetized and not the favourite if you will of the YouTube crew or whatever, is at least I know my audience is authentic and I never thought in a million years, if you go back and watch the first videos and even into the first three years when I started even using the term "audience", I sort of still am uneasy with that; that wasn't why I did this to have any kind of an audience, I'm just trying to get the other information out. Yes, there is a promotional element for the firm, but it is nice to know your audience is authentic. They are real people, they are not really bots or whatever. That said, it is also disconcerting to continue making these videos when you are watching people putting out really just derivative slop or stuff, they just straight up stole from you, and they are getting all kinds of love from YouTube, and one just continues to plod along. 

But that said, after reading that, I kind of was sitting here wondering well maybe if they were doing that kind of thing, maybe they are kind of still doing it to me or have started again doing it to me or this channel, whatever. That being said, I'm not going to stop. To quote or paraphrase the late President Franklin Delano Roosevelt: "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead".