YouTube Looks Into PewDiePie's Account After Fans Suspect Shadowban

YouTube is looking into why PewDiePie's recent videos are not showing up in searches after fans noticed they were having difficulty accessing the platform's most popular creator's newest videos.

Rumors started swirling that PewDiePie was shadowbanned after it was discovered that his videos would not appear in search, that the videos displayed on his channel were over a year old, and his subscribers were not getting notifications when he uploaded a new video. Claims of a "shadowban" were pushed by likes of Keemstar, host of the sensational YouTube channel DramaAlert, as fans spread unsubstantiated theories that YouTube was trying to reduce PewDiePie's reach on the platform.

YouTube SHADOWBANS its Biggest Creator!

PEWDIEPIE

His channel & videos do not show up in any search results on YouTube & his videos are not being sent out to his subscribers! pic.twitter.com/zPXAhHpvRn

— KEEM 🍿 (@KEEMSTAR) October 22, 2020

YouTube maintains that it does not shadowban creators, saying on Twitter that it's possible a recent PewDiePie video was flagged by their automated system as needing review, and that's why it wasn't showing up in search. The platform also told Polygon, "We are hearing reports that PewDiePie’s channel and some videos are not surfacing within searches. We are currently working on fixing the issue. We are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused."

YouTube doesn't shadowban channels. It’s possible the video was flagged by our systems as potentially violative & needs to be reviewed first before it shows up in search, etc. Note that reviews are taking longer since we have limited teams due to COVID-19: https://t.co/f25cOgmwRV

— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) October 22, 2020

As of this moment, it appears as though the issue is fixed, as PewDiePie's channel does show up when you search his name on YouTube, along with his most recent videos.