After an audit of views, Google slashed billions of views from music channels, including Universal Music (a defendant in the notorious “dancing baby” DMCA takedown case). The article says:
Record companies representing stars like Rihanna, Justin Biber and Alicia Keys may not be as popular as they hoped – as YouTube wiped two billion “fake views” from their channels on the site video sharing site.
I wonder whether the companies are involved somehow in the inflated views. For example:
Google slashed the cumulative view counts on YouTube channels belonging to Universal Music Group, Sony/BMG, and RCA Records by more than 2 billion views Tuesday, a drastic winter cleanup that may be aimed at shutting down black hat view count-building techniques employed by a community of rogue view count manipulators on the video-sharing site.
I honestly don’t know whether the companies are involved. But suppose, hypothetically, the companies were involved. Notably, the feds tried to criminally prosecute a woman for making a fake MySpace profile a few years back. Maybe they’d do the same to record companies? . . . . Not!
H/T Pete Fein @wearpants on Twitter. Cross-posted to my Infoglut Tumblr.