The fact you have to wait 3 MONTHS, losing potentially thousands of dollars until you can appeal again is terrifying, glad ludwig is calling this out

this screams "youtube doesn't want to deal with your bad data" when it comes to sorting it out of the actual users. IE they don't want to deal with bots and now are putting the blame onto the creator who knows nothing on how to fix or remedy this.

I’ve been creating KZfaq content since 2008, and this channel since 2010. This situation happened to me a few month back in December! It was my biggest month ever with $3k+ in revenue. I lost about 50% because of invalid traffic. What frustrated me the most was not losing the money, that sucked, but KZfaq support blamed me for the invalid traffic! They flat out said I caused the invalid traffic and refused to give any evidence even when asked multiple times. I doubt you’ll see this, but thank you for covering this!!!

There was a definite shift in the way KZfaq used to be a website that paid people to create content, to a business that expected a thank you for allowing you to upload

Doing Hutch dirty, respect your people that helped make your platform popular.

KZfaq seriously needs to fix these issues, it's so sad to see so many creators coming out with this struggle.

I experienced this back in June... Ever since, ad revenue on my channel has been the lowest in 11 years. The banner message "Ads have been limited on one or more of your videos due to invalid traffic" was present for a couple days, but went away. Ad revenue remained down and estimated monetized playbacks also remained down. I have tried disabling embedding. No result. A couple days ago, I disabled monetization on every single one of my videos (and privated my shorts), generating $0.00 for July 16th. Once earnings data for July 16th showed up in Analytics, guess what else showed up... the IVT message, AGAIN! So basically, it seems that *turning off monetization on all of your videos* can trigger KZfaq's ad limiting protections. Definitely seems like a glitch to me!

Could the issue be the rise of VPNs? KZfaq sees the same IP clicking an ad 20,000 times and gets suspicious.

Wish KZfaq actually did their job of communicating and listening to their creators. KZfaqrs should not have to worry about this

I went through this in 2015. They disabled my entire AdSense for “Invalid Click Activity” during the hype of Vidcon and a bunch of collabs. Lost all my ad revenue and 3-4 weeks later AFTER having an actual HUMAN look into it for me directly at AdSense - they’ve determined it was an “algorithmic change in their system that led to the disabling of MY AdSense” the president of AdSense at the time emailed me himself apologizing and reinstated me. Channel was honestly never the same after that though… they never would’ve looked into had I not known a much larger creator who had a POC at AdSense. Unrelated BUT fast forward a few years later I ended up getting my AdSense compromised somehow and they were no help. Went a whole year and a half trying to get help and couldn’t get any and it forced me to stop uploading bc let’s be honest, couldn’t do it for free nearly as much. It killed my channel. Not pointing fingers but it’s a shame how a situation like this can derail an entire career on this platform. Since then I was able to create a new AdSense but audience done up and left and understandably so. This was all before the boom of streaming so it was tough to migrate an audience to another platform. Hard not to live with the “what ifs” my channel was growing rapidly at the time and it seemed to glitched everything. Hope Hutch gets it fixed asap and he can continue his dreams.

KZfaq just straight up needs competition at this point. Without competition, they cam do as they please.

Thank you for posting about this! Ive had this issue since December. Ive submitted dozens of support tickets but KZfaq/Google has been zero help

It's literally impossible for a content creator to control how users are getting to their channels. This is just KZfaq trying to get out of paying creators... again.

Mogul Mail is the type of guy to make a video yelling at KZfaq who is basically his employer, Ludwig would never.

Thank you for making this. This has DESTROYED my channel. Making 80% less ALL of a sudden. KZfaq support is absolutely terrible. NO one is taking accountability. KZfaq is failing us creators. They don't give a ____

wouldnt be suprised if this is just a new way for YT to not have to pay their creators

I think this problem is even greater than KZfaq and spans up the ladder to Google itself. I started getting into game development as a hobby and uploaded my game to the app store/google play store for my friends and family to play. I signed up for google ads for the fun of it to try it out and I made literally just pennies off of the couple hundred downloads my game got. somehow though, I got my entire google ads account terminated with no chance of getting it back for the same “invalid traffic” garb. my game had like 200 downloads so I don’t see how I could possibly be a threat, yet somehow I got hunted down and banned without warning

Hutch is a KZfaq OG, so sad the situation he's been put it

KZfaq doesn't understand how this is someone's livelihood, and the effect that can have on a modest-sized creator from an economically challenged area. Thank you for standing up for those without the voice to stand up for themselves.

This is exactly what happened to my channel about 5 weeks ago. Went from making over $1k/month to just $50 this past month. No idea why it's happening or how to fix it. I have never done anything shady like buying clicks or views, I barely even share my videos anywhere.

it's good to see ludwig still makes his opinions clear even if he has a contract/bias with company at hand

KZfaq competing with Twitch and Twitter on who can make worse choices in a single year.

The timing of this whole situation feels so odd to me. At a time where we’re seeing massive tech layoffs we’re not seeing youtube starting to tighten their wallet to paying people money they deserve while saying, “its your fault figure it out”

This is actually really smart. Create a solutionless money saving problem and target those too small to defend themselves

Don't they realize that this can be weaponized really badly

At which point will people weaponize bots against channels where someone bot floods someone's channels just to trigger invalid traffic or is that what we're dealing with rn

I just got hit with a 30 day suspension for “invalid traffic”. No idea why. I have been doing KZfaq nearly 11 years. Why would I risk my hard work and a decade of my life for any reason? The only thing I’ve been told by support is “fix it”. Fix WHAT? I can’t fix something I never did. Very frustrating and I hope KZfaq takes a look at this. Thanks Lud for hopefully bringing this to their attention.

I would be devastated to experience something like this. I work with a few folks that are pushing hard for monetization and I'd be beside myself if it all disappeared with absolutely no path towards resolution. It means a great deal when someone in Ludwig's position not only takes a stand, but does so at the risk of catching heat for it on the back end. Kuddos and appreciation.

I'm glad this story is gaining some traction. Hutch posted two videos on this topic months ago and has lost around a years worth of revenue. I hope all the creators find representation.

I used to work for a company that had a mantra that unless a new feature, update or rework of an old feature could earn them at least $20m it wasn't worth the time and costs. KZfaq is significantly larger and I could imagine that they look at this problem as so miniscule compared to their other 'problems' or projects that they won't bother looking into it, but rather parry away or ignore the attention it is getting until people stop complaining, saving the time and costs associated with fixing the problem. Very sad situation though and I feel for all the small creators especially who rely on AdSense for survival.

KZfaq trying to have Hutch figure out why he has invalid traffic is like leaving your grandpa to figure out why his phone isn’t connecting to the Wi-Fi. He had no way to figure it.

Super dope of you to make a video about this Lud. This issue is definitely something that needs more awareness and hopefully a fast fix.

It really feels like youtube just sits around and comes up with new ways to ruin the website

When Mogul Mail guy said "Main Channel", I flinched. Did not realize this is a second channel! He must be popping off on his main channel!!

This honestly feels like it would be illegal in every other job context

This is so annoying… Bless the creators that are having to deal with this monstrosity.

Their statement about how to prevent invalid traffic sounds like passive aggressive business language for, "stop paying for clicks, we aren't going to directly accuse you because then you can argue it, but we are accusing you."

I personally think that ad-block probably causes the 'invalid traffic' on all these accounts. KZfaq most likely detects that there is a large amount of views on an account that are not being served ads even though they fit within the target audience for ads, and then flags it as so. The gaming space sees this more frequently because of 'gaming' browsers with built in ad-block and people in this space being more knowledgeable about tech in general.

What a genius system - put the responsibility on the creator even though he's got zero control.

Hey Lud, I’m a creator who is also going through the exact same thing as Hutch and I’ve been without my monetization for a year now because of this kind of targeting. It’s extremely demotivating to be in this situation so thank you for making this video. Im hoping something good can come of it for people like us who have been affected.

As a Software Engineer, there is likely an algorithm that is checking for this. My guess would be that this algorithm (whether or not AI) has a bug in it where it’s wayyy too sensitive. Likely it’s seeing if the clicks are greater than a specific amount. But sense they aren’t giving any explanations I am also guessing that it’s a known problem, that is on someone’s backlog or that it’s AI that they don’t know how to make it less sensitive or a combination of both. Anyways it’s their problem and they should be be handling this better on the customer service side.

I'm a big fan of how M.M. takes time and enunciates his words. I can still understand exactly what he mean when playing the video at 1.5x speed to digest the daily slop faster!

youtube needs a real competitor, nothing will ever get better until that happens

Can’t wait for the class action lawsuit that creators file when they get tired of Googles BS.

Sounds like they've got a machine learning model they don't understand.

that mannequin in the back stays freaking me out every time i watch a mogul mail.

Honestly at this point I doubt KZfaq will do anything after everything they've done to their creators. Unless people actively leave the platform

Why has KZfaq not addressed this ? It’s happening to more and more creators

Sounds like it's time for a class action lawsuit. KZfaq is stealing money.

Hutch is as OG as it gets, he deserves better.

The Invalid Traffic situation would make an interesting class action.

Hutch literally was one of the OG's that paved the way for all gaming channels and gets done dirty like this.

As an incredibly small channel, this is terrifying…

Interesting that this started happening to multiple creators in April of 2022. Almost every case I've seen of this started happening at the exact same time. That should be a pretty big sign to KZfaq that something they did to their website in April of 2022 caused this.

I think over the last few years youtube has been shifting all the moderation to AI without doing the effort to actually properly train their AI bots to not make these simple misstates. That's why there have been so many bs demonetizations, terminations, age restrictions, and strikes over the last few years

I’m so glad you covered this. I made a twitter specifically to tweet this to you a couple months back.

I’m glad you’re covering this. Been watching hutch since like 2014

KZfaq needs to fix their whole platform, actually.

I was struck with this same "issue" just two weeks ago, THE DAY right after my Adsense was all sorted out and verified. Now, I am a relatively small channel compared to most, but what really felt like a kick in the balls and hurt me the most was that the email that notified mde of this was basically sent to me THE DAY BEFORE my birthday this year (June 19th). I remember just feeling so devastated and hopeless.

Props for shining the light on this. The way Hutch got cornered and shut down should be put to an end in some kind of policy. They're the ones need to be investigating.

Props to you bro for being completely unbiased and risking ur contract with KZfaq

How is this still a thing? Dude I remember 10 years ago people in the CoD scene would view bot people's channels or banner ads to get their channel closed. How is this not resolved 10 years later

This reminds me of an issue I had with Amazon. I self-publish, and have my books exclusive to Amazon for people who use their subscription service. I did an ad once that got a lot of those subscription reads, then 3 months later they said it was bots and that if it keeps happening then they would ban my books. I did everything I could to stop it, removed the ad, etc, but it kept happening for some reason and I had to take myself off the subscription program. I think it happened to enough people though, and enough authors removed themselves from the subscription service, that they eventually changed the wording in their policy that they'll just remove the bot reads and the revenue from it, but won't affect your account. It'd be impossible to do the same here, especially for bigger creators who have employees that rely on the revenue, but it would sure get their attention if some of the biggest creators turned off monetization for even a brief period.

Thank you so much Ludwig for covering this story!!! The invalid traffic issue has been affecting my channel as well!

Had something very similar happen to me and it makes me sad to see it's not just me that had to go through this

As a little creator, this stuff is terrifying and I just wish KZfaq would look after the people who make the platform

I Dealt with a Similar problem for over 6 months last year. Instead of "Invalid Traffic" they hit me on "reused content" even though I Record all of my footage myself and it is uploaded nowhere else before hand. I was Slighted well over $25K due to this issue. KZfaq absolutely Refused to show me where I was reusing the content from or even what content of mine was allegedly being reused. The problem is KZfaq BENEFITS from wrongful demonetization. All that money now goes to them instead of splitting it with the creator. Ads Still played on my Videos While i was demonetized. KZfaq needs to end this BS and Solely dedicate people to Monitization support.

Been having the same invalid traffic issues across a few of my new channels. Nothing demonetized yet though but it's a fear for sure. How annoying

at this point youtube is working HARDER than ever to find ways to NOT pay his creators and he is winning

Would love to see a video on this whole MagnatesMedia situation, a million subscriber channel where someone filed three copyright strikes against him for like 7 seconds that is complete bs and now his channel might be deleted for nothing. Since you have connections to KZfaq maybe you can spread the word on this situation or help out!

“Invalid traffic” -> “we don’t want to pay you.”

Haven't watched the video yet, but a KZfaqr by the name of Hutts went through something like this. KZfaq incorrectly demonetized him, but they were still playing ads on his videos and they just took the money.

Hey lud, just wanted to say its pretty cool that you're using your platform for good. Been really happy with how mogul mail has been conducted. Keep it up!

The need for a true competitor to KZfaq grows and grows by the day. I guarantee that KZfaq would be _all over_ this problem and fix it within a month if some company out there threatened their position in the market so they can keep being the #1 option. It's a shame that's never going to happen. KZfaq is too big, in its resources or in its financial might or in its stranglehold over our culture, to allow any competitors to even poke them.

Thanks for talking about this. I hate seeing hutch go through this. That man deserves way better than how KZfaq is doing him right now

Hutch is one of THE OG’s of online gameplay commentary, genuinely a legend in the space. He’s being done so dirty by KZfaq man.

We're going to find out in like 2 years it's just folks using one of the VPNs that every other creator on the platform gets sponsored by, and YT's system hates VPN.

So does that mean that if someone made a bot to to click on all the ads for someone's youtube channel you could get them demonitized? Or did I misinterpret something?

KZfaqs telling the creator that they are responsible for figuring out the illegal traffic is like the American IRS knowing exactly how much you need to pay for taxes but making you figure it out and penalizing you if you get it wrong 😅

Please do more than just post this video. You have a lot more pull than you probably think, and this needs to be elevated to the highest levels. What KZfaq is doing with “invalid traffic” is not just unfair and incomprehensible, it’s evil

Of all the broken issues KZfaq has had, this is by far the worst - maybe not in general impact, but in how transparently clear it is that this is something KZfaq is doing wrong. Most problems they have are just poor decisions to cater; this legitimately seems like either a huge bug, or potentially illegal activity by making false claims in order to justify lower payouts to keep advertisers on board.

Mogul Mail ALSO has a contract with yt?!?!

Thank you so much for using your platform to give us smaller creators a voice 💛 Our channel was demonetised in 2021 for this exact same issue and most interestingly, it happened straight after our channel blew up via Browse Features i.e. traffic sent to us by KZfaq themselves - just as you highlighted at the end of your video. We will keep re-appealing and thank you again for shouting out about this.

It's kind of funny how KZfaq can't solve problems that occur on their own website, it just shows the lack of care for their customers.

No one hurts KZfaq more than KZfaq

Wait so this means if there's a KZfaqr I really don't like, I can spend a small amount of money to buy bots to watch their channel. And then it will be demonetised and ruin their career/hobby. This is FANTASTIC news. Even better I could blackmail them, threatening to do it! What wonderful news.

Lowkey feels like yt is just trying to get out of paying creators

Seems like a blatant conflict of interest that KZfaq will demonetize content and then still show it anyway, happily keeping the ad revenue. Like, have a shred of integrity.

The issue is that companies drastically lowered their ad spending and seems youtube is just playing god with channels to save money

Crazy how youtube is just known for not doing ANYTHING and almost actively avoiding any and all issues unless every single user is screaming about it

Hutch is what brought me to KZfaq years ago and kept me on there. Treat your OG's with respect because without them, KZfaq wouldn't be around

So many integrity moves lately, just looking out for others for the sake of doing it. Love what you do!

glad to see mogulmail take on youtube, other people like ludwig would never have the balls

Got hit with this notification today: "ads have been limited on one or more of your videos due to invalid traffic." KZfaq support sent me a generic list of what not to do to avoid this, and i'm doing none of those things. After a 5 hour trip down the invalid traffic rabbit hole, I'm finding more and more creators of all channel sizes getting hit with this and there's no real solution. Discouraging.

Amazing how all these big platforms seem to have "bugs" that conveniently allow them to not pay creators.

If there was a platform similar to youtube and not as shady as Kick, KZfaq would be fucked

Wouldn’t it be hilarious if this resulted in someone spamming the official youtube channel with invalid traffic? Then they would be forced to solve it for atleast one channel lmao

If youtube can detect an invalid traffic source, why can’t they just tell you what it is

DUDE SAME! I have had my channel struck down for "invalid traffic" when youtube drives 90%+ of the traffic to my channel?! They just auto-denied me and didn't give me any info on the issue at hand.

Ludwig going live at the exact time of this video uploading 😅