YouTube begins ‘audit’ of video view counts
YouTube has begun what it describes as an ‘audit’ of video views amidst concerns that some users have been artificially inflating their counters to imply that their videos are more popular than they actually are.
Various tools are available online for people to ‘redirect’ or ‘buy’ views, undermining confidence in the system and forcing the site to undertake one of its periodic audits to validate genuine viws and remove fraudulent ones.
In a blog post Google, which owns YouTube, said: “Some bad actors try to game the system by artificially inflating view counts. They're not just misleading fans about the popularity of a video, they're undermining one of YouTube's most important and unique qualities.
“While in the past we would scan views for spam immediately after they occurred, starting today we will periodically validate the video's view count. However, the firm said that it does not expect the new approach to affect "more than a minuscule fraction of videos on YouTube".
Analysts believe Google has been forced to act in order to reassure advertisers that their campaigns are reaching genuine audiences.
Google defines a genuine view as one that reflects genuine interest, in other words not how many people ‘mistakenly or unknowingly’ viewed the content.