Although some fans are happy that BTS got featured in YouTube Rewind, other’s believe there’s foul play and think they should have been in 1st place.
To say that last year’s YouTube Rewind video was bit of a flop would be a gross understatement. As it stands it is currently one of the most disliked videos on the internet. This time, however, YouTube promised make up for it.
Did you know?
- 5 reasons why fans think BTS is one of the best bands in the world.
- MUST WATCH: Somebody fixed the ‘lazy’ YouTube Rewind video.
In just under 12 hours the YouTube Rewind 2019 video has doubled in dislikes going from 2 to 4.5 million. Still, that is nothing compared to last year’s video which reached 17 million dislikes in record breaking time.
YouTube decided on a different approach this year and instead of going all out and doing a crazy collaborative effort with other creators they just made a glorified top 10 list. It is the laziest effort by YouTube so far, fans say.
Among one of the artists features is popular Korean boy band Bangtan Sonyeondan (which is a popular Korean expression which translates to Bulletproof Boy Scouts), more commonly known as BTS.
BTS, or as some fans refer to them the ‘Bangtan Boys’ are currently one of the world’s biggest groups and have one of the largest fan bases in existence known as ARMY. According to members ARMY stands for Adorable Representative MC for Youth, but the MC, in this case, stands for Mastery of Ceremonies.
Although most fans are happy to see BTS featured in the YouTube Rewind video, others feel hard done by YouTube for allegedly deleting millions of views from the video and ultimately robbing it of the 1st place position.
YouTube deleted BTS views
During the 24 hour of debut of their highly anticipated track Boy With Luv feat. Halsey, the video accumulated 12.8 million likes earning it the second place for most liked music videos just behind Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello’s Senorita which received 13.5 million in the same 24 hour period.
However, the BTS video almost doubled the amount of views that Senorita did but then, all the sudden, the view count dropped by 10 million and fans accused YouTube of censoring BTS and deleting views. BTS fans were outraged.
The most likely scenario is that fans were smashing the refresh button to get the video on YouTube’s trending list the second it premiered. If that’s the case then the YouTube algorithm would have corrected the inflation by deleting botted views. This happens on even the smallest videos; if you refresh your video a bunch of times you will notice that the view count will freeze and then eventually drop to display an accurate total.
A Google Products Expert responded, “this happens whenever a big K-pop boy band releases a single. Their fans keep refreshing the page or reloading the video to boost the video’s view count.
“These repeated views are counted by YouTube at first and then, when YouTube validates the views, it rolls off the repeated views. That is simply how it works. Yes, YouTube deletes views.
“The fans themselves are causing the phenomenon. Then they come on to the help forums full of self-righteous indignation. It doesn’t make K-pop fans look good.”
BTS ARMY responds on Twitter and YouTube
The drama has rolled over to the YouTube Rewind 2019 video where fans believe BTS deserved first place despite not getting as many likes as Senorita.
One Twitter who also hated last year’s Rewind video feels robbed by this year’s video.
ew the way YouTube rewind is really trying to pull in views from bts when they literally stole and froze their views and also used ugly ass people to rep them last YouTube rewind… no thanks
— 예지 ? (@jeonjkT_T) December 4, 2019
YouTube accused of using BTS for clout
According to most fans, BTS is much larger than YouTube and the main reason they are still getting visitors today is because of the ARMY.
#YouTubeRewind ruined idol, deleted our mv views and using bts name for clouts, youtube can fuck off pic.twitter.com/E0Mez3hib9
— ? (@goldyeos) December 6, 2018
Fans accused YouTube of simply including the group in the video for likes and views.
YouTube didn’t even deem it important to name BTS in their rewind video and dismissed them as “kpop” as they proceeded to use Idol for clout, which to me, looked more like a parody than an appreciation.
— Nephilya (@nephilyaa) December 6, 2018
We ain’t forget those 11 million views you deleted, snake. #YouTubeRewind
Whether you are a proud member of the BTS ARMY or not, what are your thoughts on YouTube Rewind 2019? Did they do better than last year or was it just as bad as ever? Let us know in the comments below.