Despite currently serving out their mandatory military enlistments, BTS have kept fans busy with many things prepared before their service. The latest release from the group members is Jimin‘s “Smeraldo Garden Marching Band (feat. Loco),” which dropped on June 27.
Through the joy of the release, fans couldn’t help but notice something odd about the idol’s performance on YouTube.
As of writing, Jimin has just over 4 million views on the music video and 1.1 million likes. Many see this as an unusually high like-to-view ratio (around 1 out of 4) compared to the performances of groups and idols on the HYBE LABELS YouTube channel.
For example, TWS‘s “내가 S면 넌 나의 N이 되어줘” was released four days ago and has 405 thousand likes and 14 million views(ratio of about 3 out of 10) while BTS RM‘s “Lost” has 9.8 million views and 1.3 million likes(ratio of about 6 out of 50).
Some fans have pointed out that the HYBE LABELS YouTube uploaded three videos nearly simultaneously, which could be affecting the views Jimin’s MV is receiving.
“they uploaded 3 videos at the same time… this is why we need to request them to upload BTS’s related videos on BangtanTV pic.twitter.com/oEmXDdOqBT”
— m u s e (@_sdl93bu) June 28, 2024
The algorithm of youtube think HYBE LABEL is spamming WHICH IS ACTUALLY TRUE BECAUSE LOOK AT THIS https://t.co/xuXZuzEBeV
— g(e)l⁷ | MUSE IS COMING (@thanosmfstan) June 28, 2024
Others believe that there is a larger issue in play, expressing a fear that YouTube has “shadowbanned” BTS as a whole. Shadow banning affects how something is interacted with by others, with no apparent difference, unlike outright banning or blocking.
If true, this means that YouTube’s algorithm may document views differently, with some fans suspicious BTS’s apparent lack of ads has affected their performance.
YouTube shadowbanned BTS. Y'all think posting MVs on bangtantv will help, but it also barely sends notifies. I'm never seeing bts shorts despite my algorithm should be swimming in them. Old MVs are getting more views deleted than they gain. Tardy trends despite high views n likes https://t.co/XDnWx3DZ34
— gomooshin⁷ (@taesoothe) June 28, 2024
we used to get 30M+ views on surprise releases but since chapter two hybe is shadow banned like isn't this fucking weird to y'all https://t.co/q8F0mNoP3B pic.twitter.com/Z9LojBAN3G
— gigi gojo⁷☀️ (@polartaegi) June 28, 2024
bts is shadowbanned by yt becs their decision is not to do paid ads, so yt ends up paying BTS more according to their streams than they gain from the boys
Hence even yt reactor vdos of BTS get lesser reach https://t.co/vW0EKqVUvt
— CIRUS ⁷⁼¹ (@innerchilding7) June 28, 2024
Fans have called out YouTube over BTS’s performance in the past.
